How Long Can A Person Receive Disability Benefits (And Why)?

Exact answer: Till Retirement Age

SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance. It is a plan that gives benefits to individuals and their family members. When you are declared to be insured, it indicates that you’ve been working for a long time and have successfully given all the Social Security taxes on your incomes. With this Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, interests are paid to disabled children and adults who get unsatisfactory pay and supplies.

For the same medical conditions, the Social Security Income disability plans are different. If you’re successful in meeting the non-medical necessity guidelines, then you get monthly benefits. But if you are suffering from a medical problem that is suspected to last for a year or more than that and it may result in death.

How Long Can A Person Receive Disability Benefits?

When an individual is granted Social Security Disability privileges, then categorization is performed. Three different categories are:

1. MIE- Medical Improvement Expected 
2. MIP- Medical Improvement Possible 
3. MINE- Medical Improvement Not Expected 

In which category your case befalls depends on your ongoing eligibility reviews and for how long you need the disability benefits.

If you’re marked as MIE, then it is expected that your condition will develop and you get an ongoing eligibility review for around six to eighteen months. If your health does not improve, at the course of the review, your disability benefits will stay.

If you’re marked as MIP, then it is believed that your condition can progress but there’s no surety. Then, you’ll be given an ongoing eligibility review for around two to five years. At the point of review, if your health improves and you’re capable of returning to work, then you won’t get the benefits. But if you’re incapable of returning, then the Social Security Disability benefits will continue and will be up for you would get an ongoing eligibility review again in the next two to five years.

And if you’re marked as MINE, then it is believed that your condition will not improve ever. But you still experience an ongoing eligibility review, that is conducted every five to seven years. For the time being, if you don’t feel better, then you’ll get disability benefits till you approach the retirement age. At retirement age, your disability benefits are converted to Social Security Retirement privileges.

Why Does It Take That Long to Receive Disability Benefits?

To get the privileges of the Social Security disability benefits, the person needs to have served in jobs that are related to Social Security. Then, that individual needs to have a medical problem that matches Social Security’s interpretation of disability. Only then, the disabled person will get monthly benefits if they’re incapable of working for a year or forever due to their disability.

These benefits will continue till the person can work again routinely. Also, there are specific work incentives that come with regular benefits and health problems. For those individuals who undergo rigorous and persistent disabilities, there is no termination date. For them, there is no fixed time set for receiving the Social Security Disability benefits. Till the time you remain disabled, you will persist to obtain your disability amounts until you attain your retirement age. Once you reach that point, then your benefits are converted to retirement benefits and are owed till death.

In case if the SSA can determine from the ongoing eligibility review that a person can get back to work, but you’re still unfit for work then you can request the declaration. During this request, the person would be capable of obtaining their monthly Social Security Disability privilege pay. Nevertheless, if the request results in the SSA concluded that there is no efficacy to the request then your request is denied. Also, you might have to give back the pay you obtained from the SSA.

Conclusion

When an individual applies for a Social Security Benefit then they need to give the following information:

Personal Details:

1. Name
2. Date of birth
3. Social Security Number (SSN)
4. Name and dates of birth of your children.
5. Bank account details
6. Contact number

Medical Details:

1. Specified details about your disability or illness
2. Date and details of medication from hospitals, doctors, or clinics.
3. The name and dosage of medicines and the medical tests prescribed by the physician.

Work Details:

1. Your annual pay.
2. Name and address of the employer or the organization you’ve worked for last year.
3. List of the jobs that you have done in the past 15 years before the disability. 

References

1. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/423157
2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-015-0424-z