If you are applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), you may be aware that you will receive monthly income if you are approved, but there are other significant benefits that come with SSDI. Here are our top five.
- Increased Monthly Income. Although your initial Social Security benefits will offset the payment from your Long-term Disability (LTD) carrier, your Social Security cost-of-living increases may not. Thus, your combined benefits may increase each year when Social Security cost-of-living increases are paid. If you do not have LTD, your Social Security disability benefits will provide monthly income and this will increase each year when you receive your cost-of-living increase.
- Increased Retirement And Survivors’ Benefits. Social Security disability entitlement “freezes” your Social Security earnings record. Social Security regulations stipulate that any years “wholly or partially within a period of disability” will be excluded from the computation of future benefits. Thus, the amount of your eventual Social Security retirement benefits, your dependents’ benefits, or even a subsequent disability or survivors’ benefits, may be higher because these lost years of earnings will not be considered in future computations.
- Tax-free Income. A portion of an individual’s Social Security benefits may be taxable if certain criteria are met. However, many beneficiaries continue to receive their benefits totally tax free!
- Medicare Coverage. After you have received Social Security disability benefits for 24 months, regardless of your age, you also become eligible for Medicare benefits. This includes Part A hospital benefits and Part B medical benefits.
- Vocational Rehabilitation And Return To Work Incentives. If you medically recover enough to return to work, you are eligible for Social Security’s Ticket to Work (TTW) Program. TTW provides free vocational rehabilitation help from a Social Security authorized Employment Network and other significant benefits like protecting your SSDI monthly income while you work.
You can find out more about the SSDI process online at Applying For SSDI.
Visit Allsup.com or call (800) 678-3276 to learn more about filing a claim for SSDI benefits.
