Published on: April 14, 2015
Before calculating how much Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) you are entitled to, it is important to know how the Social Security Administration (SSA) defines “disability,” and how this affects disability payments.
There is a very stringent definition the administration follows in accordance with federal law — to receive benefits, you must have a disability that prevents you from working due to a medical condition lasting or expected to last at least one year, or result in death.
There are also exceptions, such as cases for family members of the disabled receiving benefits, as well as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility.
That being said, once you are approved for disability, your payments are unable to start until you’ve been disabled for at least five full months. Your disability benefit amount is dependent upon your “average lifetime earnings,” and your insured status under Social Security before your disability started.
What Will my Payment Amount be?
Once you are approved for disability benefits, your amount is generated by the SSA with a specific formula that calculates your income paid to Social Security taxes; this is the “average indexed monthly earnings” (AIME).
According to the SSA’s website, the AIME “summarizes up to 35 years of a worker’s indexed earnings.” This includes “indexing” your lifetime earnings to “reflect the change in general wage levels that occurred during the worker’s years of employment.” Standards of living rise over the years, after all, and the SSA must accommodate for these changes when considering wage levels.
This figure is used to calculatethe “primary insurance amount” (PIA). It is the PIA that serves as a baseline for calculating your benefit amount. The SSA uses a complicated list of percentages and AIME amounts, which are conglomerated and further categorized by the year you become eligible for disability benefits (this also applies to retirement benefits).
For 2015, the SSA’s PIA formula is the total of the following (this is an excerpt from the SSA’s page on “Primary Insurance Amount”):
(a) 90 percent of the first $826 of a recipient’s average indexed monthly earnings, plus
(b) 32 percent of his/her average indexed monthly earnings over $826 and up to $4,980, plus
(c) 15 percent of his/her average indexed monthly earnings over $4,980.
This number is rounded down the nearest $.10, as applicable.
How Do I Know How Much my Earnings are or Will be?
The SSA provides an annual Social Security statement that you can monitor and access online. If you cannot access this, you may also contact your local Social Security office to speak to a representative for a benefit overview.
However, there are so many factors to consider when facing the challenges of applying for disability benefits — no matter what stage of the application process you are in — that we recommend contacting a trained disability expert in your state. This can provide helpful knowledge on your application, as well as what you are entitled to that you may not be aware of.
The waiting time for an appointment at a Social Security office could take days or weeks; start your application now by contacting a representative who can give you all of the facts about how much SSDI you may be eligible to receive.
