How Much Social Security Disability Back Pay Will I Get
The amount of back pay you will receive depends on a variety of factors as well as whether you applied for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income . SSI benefits are need-based, so most applicants can simply get back pay to cover the time since their application date. Often, the SSA divides your SSI back pay into three payments spaced six months apart.
SSDI benefits are more complicated because they are based on your reported earnings and, in some cases, benefits begin prior to the application date. Unlike SSI, you receive your SSDI back pay as a lump sum. The three factors that determine how much SSDI back pay you will receive are:
- Date of Disability. You can get back pay for up to a year before your application date if your disability started before you applied. This is known as retroactive pay. Two dates are important to your retroactive pay:
- Alleged Onset Date . When you apply for SSDI, you must include the date when you believe your disability began. Generally, you must provide medical records or other evidence in support of this date.
- Established Onset Date. During the SSDI approval process, the disability examiner will review all of the information in your application as well as your medical records. Then, the examiner will rule on when your disability actually began. This date may or may not coincide with your AOD.
Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits
The Canada Pension Plan provides monthly payments to people who contribute to the plan during their working years.
You may be eligible for CPP disability benefits if:
- you contributed to the CPP for a certain number of years
- you’re under 65 years old
- you have a severe and prolonged mental or physical disability
- your disability prevents you from working on a regular basis
The benefits include payments to children of a person with a disability.
Apply as early as possible if you think you’re eligible for CPP disability benefits. Quebec residents may be eligible for a similar program called the Quebec Pension Plan . It may take several months to process your application.
If you applied for CPP or QPP disability benefits and were told that you’re not eligible, you can ask to have your application reviewed or considered again.
Once you reach age 65, your CPP disability benefit will automatically change to regular CPP payments. Your regular CPP payments may be less than the CPP disability payments you got before.
If so, consider:
What If There Is Extra Money
If you pay your bills and take care of some necessities and have money left over, you shouldnt go overboard and waste it. Instead, you should use your funds wisely. You should consider opening a bank account, which draws interest.
That way, you can have your funds put away and be getting interest, which will add to your total cash amount. You will want to put the money in an account so it can be accessed if there is an emergency, such as a vehicle that breaks down and either needs repairs or replacement, or you may have a medical emergency or need to make repairs to your home. You can also use these funds for insurance deductibles in situations when you must file a claim with your health, auto, or homeowners coverage.
Remember, emergencies do happen. If you have some extra funds to put away it can be very helpful to your family and can help resolve future financial crisis that you may face.
There are emergencies that require financial resources more often than you think, so having some cash that you can access in such situations can be a real life changer. Check with different banks about interest drawing accounts and learn which would be more suitable for your specific needs.
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When Should I Expect My Ssdi Back Pay
Most approved applicants will receive their SSDI back pay within about 60 days of their claim being approved. The timing can be iffy, though. Some applicants have reported receiving their backpay by direct deposit even before they receive the award letter notifying them of their disability benefits award.
When Will My Regular Monthly Benefits Begin
Usually regular monthly benefits begin the month after you receive your check for past-due benefits, although occasionally people get a check for regular monthly benefits first. Your check will be sent out to arrive on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month, depending on what day of the month you were born. The check will pay benefits for the previous month. Thus, for example, the check for Januarys benefits will come in February.
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Will I Have To Pay Taxes On The Social Security Disability Benefits I Receive
Probably not, but this depends on the amount of your total income. Most people wont have to pay taxes on their Social Security disability benefits. Couples whose combined incomes exceed $32,000 and individuals with income exceeding $25,000 will pay income tax on a portion of their Social Security disability benefits. The IRS has an odd way of figuring out total income for this rule. The IRS uses adjusted gross income as reported on Form 1040, plus one-half of the total Social Security benefits received for the year, plus non-taxable interest.
Single people with incomes over $34,000 and married people with incomes over $44,000 pay tax on a higher percentage of their Social Security disability benefits.
Heres an odd thing: People whose Social Security benefits are reduced because of the workers compensation offset or offsets for other public disability benefits must count the amount of Social Security benefits not paid when determining taxability of their benefits. But if a child receives benefits on a parents account, those benefits count only for determining if the child must pay taxes on Social Security benefits received.
Tax law is very complex. Please talk to a tax specialist if you have any questions about taxes on your Social Security benefits.
How Long Before I Get My Back Pay
While this one-time deposit does not occur immediately after you receive approval, the processing time is fairly quick. It may take three to four months after your first regular benefits check to see this large deposit. If it takes more time we follow up with Social Security for our clients to pinpoint what may be causing the delay.
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What Happens If The Social Security Administration Disagrees With My Onset Date
In total, you could receive Social Security disability back pay for up to a year before your application date. However, the amount you actually get depends on your EOD as well as the five-month waiting period. If the EOD does not agree with the AOD you submitted with your application, you may receive less back pay benefits than you expected.
You may appeal your EOD, but you could risk losing your disability benefits entirely. In some situations, it may make more sense to accept the established EOD. In others, you may be more likely to win an appeal. Some reasons that you may file an appeal include:
- SSA Errors. It is possible for disability examiners to make simple mistakes, like misreading the dates on your medical records. If an error like this results in an incorrect EOD, then an appeal is often a good idea.
- Additional medical evidence. If you or the examiner fails to request all of your medical records, the true onset date of your disability may be unclear. If it will make a substantial difference to your back pay, an appeal may make sense in this case.
An EOD appeal is often a risk, so it is always best to consult an attorney before you make a decision. A Tulsa disability lawyer from our law firm can review your case and advise you on the best course of action.
When Should You Receive Your Disability Check
On average, it takes about 1 to 2 months to get your disability check after your social security disability claim is approved. In some cases, it can take longer. Back payments, however, usually arrive much later.
SSI payments, on the other hand, begin right away. Its typically sent on the first day of each month, except when it falls on a Sunday. In such instances, youll receive it on the last working day of the previous month.
Under the law, a six months waiting period between your disability onset date and when you should get your first payment must also be observed. For example, if your disability started in June 2020, your payment will start in December of that same year.
Even if your claim is approved on the same month that your disability started, youll still have to wait six months before you can get your first monthly payment. Taking from the previous example, if your disability claim is approved in June , the earliest you can expect your check will still be in December. An exemption to this rule would be if your condition falls under the Compassionate Allowances Program which we will discuss later.
Most of the time, however, the approval process itself eats up most of the waiting period. Receiving other payments like workers compensation benefits or pensions based on work not covered by social security may delay your check even further. Instances like this require a claims specialist to manually process your claim, hence the delay.
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How To Calculate The Amount Of Ssi Or Ssdi Back Pay
You will receive what is called an award letter which will set forth the amount of your monthly SSI or SSDI benefit. It may be that you can simply figure out how many months you are owed and multiply the number of months by the amount of your benefit. However, for many people, there is an offset for income from employment or other money received, such as workers compensation benefits, and that may reduce the amount of back pay owed to you.
You can always speak to a representative at your local SSA office if you have questions about calculating the amount of back pay you should receive. If you are applying for social security benefits online, there is help available there too.
If you are approved for SSI, or a combination of SSI and SSDI, the rules are different. Social Security generally pays the back pay benefits for SSI or concurrent SSI and SSDI back pay in three installment payments that are separated by six months each.
Is There Anything That I Can Do Now To Help Ensure That My Benefits Will Continue
The very best thing you can do is to continue seeing your doctor. A lot of people with long-term chronic medical problems stop seeing their doctors because no treatment seems to help. This is a mistake for two reasons. First, it means that when the Social Security Administration conducts a review, no medical evidence will exist to show that your condition is the same as it was when you were first found disabled. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, doctors recommend that even healthy people after a certain age periodically have a thorough physical examination. This is even more important for people who already have chronic medical problems.
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When Will I Receive My Ssdi Back Pay
It usually takes around 60 days to receive your back pay. Unlike SSI, SSDI back pay is often provided as one lump sum payment. However, it can only be paid by direct deposit, so you will need an active bank account in order to receive these funds. The SSA is very careful about calculating the Social Security benefit amounts for SSDI applicants, so you should not expect an overpayment.;
Back Pay Vs Retroactive Payments
Dont confuse back payments with retroactive payments. Back payments are owed to you up to the time that you applied for benefits. Retroactive payments are given for up to 12 months before you applied for benefits if you can prove that you were already disabled during that time.
For Social Security disability applicants, there is a mandatory 5 month waiting period after you have been approved. This means that once youve been approved, Social Security will not be making payments to you until 5 months have passed. This is usually evened out since most Social Security disability beneficiaries will not get their application approved until well after those first 5 months. But you will start receiving, or be owed, benefits on the 6th month once you have been approved.
You can receive your back pay up to 60 days after your application is approved and the SSA decides if you qualify for disability benefits. This is typically paid as one lump-sum and will be directly deposited online into your bank account.
If you were disabled long before you decided to apply, you can hire an attorney to help you challenge your established onset date, or EOD. Your EOD is the date the Social Security administration thinks you became disabled, and is the date on which you applied for benefits.
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What Are Unadjudicated Claims And How Do They Affect The Amount Of Retroactive/back Pay Benefits
An unadjudicated claim refers to a claim which remains open due to an oversight in VA system.
This can occur during different stages of a claim. In the past, , claimants would often file a morass of written submissions.
Buried in these submissions might be statements requesting service-connected benefits, constituting informal claims. Overwhelmed by all the busy text, a VA adjudicator might overlook or even ignore these informal claims.
In theory, upon the claimants request, these claims can be activated at any time, with a potential effective date relating back to the filing of the claim.
Unadjudicated claims can also arise during the appellate stage. ;For instance, a claim will remain unadjudicated if the VA fails to issue a Statement of the Case following the timely filing of a Notice of Disagreement.
Likewise, a claim will remain unadjudicated if the Board of Veterans Appeals fails to adjudicate a claim following the timely filing of a Substantive Appeal.
For effective dates, unadjudicated claims can be gold mines. ;Recall that effective dates are usually determined by the date of the claim. ;Therefore, if you find an unadjudicated claim in the file, which has remained dormant for years, maybe even decades, the entitled retroactive/back pay may reach as far back as the filing date of the unadjudicated claim.
How Will You Receive Your Disability Check
Until fairly recently, most Social Security disability recipients received a paper check in the mail. Prior to 1997 , those checks were sent to arrive on the 3rd of each month. For those who have made claims since 1997, the exact date on which Social Security checks were sent depends on your date of birth.
- Those with birthdays on the 1st-10th of the month receive checks on the second Wednesday of the month.
- Those with birthdays on the 11th through 20th of the month receive checks on the third Wednesday of the month.
- Those with birthdays on the 21st through the 30th receive checks on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
These days, most Social Security Disability recipients dont actually receive a paper check at all. The majority of Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income recipients receive their benefits check through direct deposit into their bank account. The government is in the process of requiring beneficiaries to receive their benefits electronically. For those who dont want to receive their benefits through direct deposit, the SSA offers a debit card.
When you are approved for Social Security Disability benefits, the SSA will ask you which payment option you prefer and it will be up to you.
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Does Maternity Leave Count As Short
Youve probably heard of circumstances where people use their short-term disability for pregnancy and maternity leave. Doing so is fairly common, but whether or not youre able to do so yourself is also dependent on your plan.
We actually see a lot of short-term disability policies that specifically address maternity leave, explains Bartolic. These plans also will explain how much time off is offered for maternity leave, which can vary based on things like whether the mother had a vaginal birth or a c-section.
Some employers exclude maternity leave from their short-term disability plan and have an entirely separate program to address paid leave for childbirth.
How Long Does The Process Take
The length of time it takes Social Security to make a disability decision depends on several different factors, but primarily on:
- The nature of your disability;
- How quickly we obtain medical evidence from your doctor or other medical sources; and
- Whether it is necessary to send you for a medical examination in order to obtain evidence to support your claim.
You can help speed up the process by having the needed information on hand when you apply. Please go to Information You Need To Apply For Disability Benefits for more information.
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When You Have To Pay Back Long
Most long-term disability insurance policies contain a rule, called the offset provision, that forces you to apply for SSDI in addition to claiming LTDI benefits. If your LTDI policy has this provision and you receive SSDI payments, your LTDI benefits will be reduced by the amount you received in SSDI.
The Social Security Administrationâs definition of disability, which describes how disabled you have to be before youâre eligible to receive benefits, is very strict, and most people get denied. In addition, it may take months or years to start receiving SSDI benefits. However, if youâre granted benefits, youâll receive a lump-sum catch-up payment for every month the SSA spent processing your eligibility.
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During the time you spent waiting for SSDI benefits, your LTDI benefits may have already started paying out. If your LTDI policy has the offset provision, you may have to pay all or part of the catch-up payment to the insurance company to offset the amount the company was obliged to pay you during that time.