Disability Benefits
Disability benefits may be available to individuals who are injured and unable to work. Social Security, which used to only provide benefits to retirees, now helps individuals who are injured by supplying them with disability benefits, proving they fit the qualifications and requirements.
• There are two different programs that provide disability benefits for an individual being injured. The first one is the Social Security disability insurance program. An individual and members of their families may be eligible for this disability insurance if they have worked for a long enough period of time and have been continuously paying Social Security taxes. In addition, an adult child may qualify for disability benefits if they have a disability that starts before they turned 22-years-old.
• The second disability insurance program that an individual may be eligible to receive disability benefits from is called the Supplemental Security income, or SSI disability. The difference among Supplemental Security income and Social Security disability insurance is that Social Security disability insurance is based on an individual’s prior work under Social Services and Supplemental Security income is based on the financial needs of the individual.
• Social Security disability insurance is financed with Social Security taxes. These are the payments made by workers and employers and they are deducted from each paycheck. To be eligible for Social Security disability benefits, the worker must earn enough credits based on taxable work, meaning they must have been paying Social Security from their own paychecks for a period of time. These Social Security disability benefits are then paid to workers that are disabled, blind, sick or injured. The monetary amount of the monthly disability benefits that the eligible worker will receive is based on the Social Security earnings record of the worker.
• The extent of the injury or disability does not matter when it comes to receiving disability benefits. A disability benefit only depends on the amount of an individual’s lifetime earnings and has nothing to do with the condition of their disability, injury, or sickness.
• Another disability benefit that may be available under disability insurance is health insurance. Most likely, this health care will be provided by Medicare. If an individual is receiving disability benefits for a minimum of two years, the disability insurance will kick in by having Social Security enroll the individual in Medicare automatically. This 24 months is counted from the actual time of disablement, not the time when the individual began receiving the monetary disability benefits. Two special circumstances exist for people with permanent kidney failure or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Because of the deadly nature of these issues, the disability insurance for these individuals will start as soon as they are officially entitled to receive disability benefits.
A company having some form of disability insurance for its employees are considered to be one of the most important benefits that can be offered. Statistically, three in ten workers among the ages of 25 and 65 will be disabled and unable to work for at least three months in their lifetimes. That high number alone shows how important it is to have access to disability benefits.
