The Hidden Value of Social Security Disability Insurance: Why It’s Important During Benefits Enrollment
The hidden benefits that often accompany a SSDI award make the long and paperwork-intensive application process worthwhile for many claimants.
Why am I doing this?
Social Security Disability Insurance claimants ask their representatives this question all the time.
SSDI provides a maximum monthly benefit of $3,148, which is much less than many individuals’ prior incomes. The difficulty in obtaining these benefits—and the length of time it takes to win approval—makes many claimants wonder if the process is worth their time or the stress of the fight. An experienced Social Security disability attorney or representative can encourage the claimant by discussing what we will call Social Security’s “hidden benefits.”
The Hidden Benefits of SSDI
I’ll share two stories of claimants I represented who were ready to quit the process to explain these benefits.
The first client was a younger woman with three small children living in a big city with a high cost of living. She held a job earning nearly $10,000.00 each month. Sadly, this woman was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer and the treatment protocol prevented her from working.
After two rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, her cancer went into remission. However, she was left with debilitating side effects, including peripheral neuropathy, fatigue, nausea, and cognitive decline (commonly known as “chemo brain”). These side effects prevented her return to work. And the COVID-19 pandemic caused her husband to lose his job.
When she learned what her Social Security benefit amount would be she asked, “Why am I fighting for this?” She told me one-third of her previous income was not going to cover her family’s most basic expenses.
SSDI Family Benefits
And then I was able to tell her about benefits for her young children and Medicare. Because her young children were dependents, they could draw benefits on her earnings record. Social Security will pay up to 50 percent of the wage earner’s disability benefit to qualified children. This allowed my client to received additional benefits for all three children.
Medicare Benefits and SSDI
My client was also immediately eligible to receive Medicare benefits because she became disabled more than two years and five months prior to being granted her SSDI benefits. This was a huge savings for her family as they were paying for COBRA for healthcare coverage—not a cheap option. Medicare is available to all Social Security disability recipients who have completed a 24-month qualifying period. This qualifying period begins five months after the claimant’s established onset of disability.
These two “hidden benefits” brought her net benefit to well over half her previous income. And while her children and husband could not be covered under her Medicare benefits, her husband found a new job to cover the rest of the family’s healthcare expenses. This placed them in a financial position that was significantly closer to their prior income.
Same Diagnosis, Different Circumstances
In another case, I had a client with a cancer diagnosis, but with very different circumstances. This client was in her late fifties with adult-aged children when she received her diagnosis. She had been a stay-at-home mother for most of her adult life until her children were older. Then she found a rewarding, well-paid position prior to receiving her diagnosis. Unfortunately, her cancer diagnosis was not the only tragedy to strike—her husband unexpectedly passed away.
The client was now in a situation where she could not work due to her cancer treatment, and she had to deal with the grief of losing her husband. The grief quickly turned into a disabling depressive disorder.
While the family had built up healthy savings from her husband’s income and life insurance benefits, she worried she would run out of money long before she was able to return to work. And, if she was never able to return to work, she fretted she would lose everything.
To add to her stress, when she looked up her calculated monthly disability benefit, she found it would be less than $1,000.00 each month. This was due to the limited amount of time she worked most of her life. But I had good news about hidden benefits for her as well.
SSDI Survivor Benefits
Despite her grief over losing her husband, the silver lining was she qualified for survivor benefits. Drawing survivor benefits meant she was able to receive the maximum monthly SSDI benefit of $3,148 based upon her late husband’s earnings record instead of her own.
A widow or widower is eligible to draw monthly survivor benefits if he or she is age sixty, or disabled on their own account and age fifty or older. Even divorced spouses are eligible under certain circumstances.
My client was over fifty and was found disabled. Since her disability began before or within seven years of her husband’s death, she was eligible. She was not penalized for being a stay-at-home mother. This hidden benefit saved her a lot of stress and allowed her to focus on her recovery rather than worrying about money.
While each client had different circumstances, both nearly gave up their claim for SSDI benefits. Through my experience as a disability attorney, I was able to share the hidden benefits of the Social Security Disability Insurance program. These benefits not only made the claim for disability benefits a fight worth winning, they helped each of them experience less stress and started them on their paths to recovery.
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