Once you are approved for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), you may be owed more than your monthly disability benefit. Back pay is compensation for the months between the filing of your application and the date your application was approved.
The amount you may receive will depend on several factors, such as the type of disability benefits you have been awarded and the amount of time you waited for approval.
To find out if you may be eligible for back pay, reach out to our legal team at Sigman Janssen. We are prepared to review your situation and explain your available legal options in a risk-free consultation.
How Back Pay is Determined
The way back pay is distributed and the amount you receive will depend on whether you were approved for SSDI or SSI. The longer it takes to get your application approved, the more money you are likely to receive.
Since most applicants are denied at least once before obtaining disability benefits, you could be waiting several months or longer for your application to receive approval.
Back Pay With Social Security Disability Insurance
SSDI benefits are subject to a five-month waiting period. If your application is approved, you will not receive benefits for five full calendar months.
This policy also affects your back pay. For example, if your claim was approved within five months of applying, you will not receive any back pay. If it took 12 months for the SSA to approve your application, you would be eligible for seven months of back pay, not 12.
SSDI back pay is usually sent out soon after an application is approved, and it is paid in a lump sum. You will not receive interest on your back pay.
A Green Bay Social Security Disability attorney from our firm is ready to help calculate your back pay amount and answer any of your other questions.
Back Pay for Supplemental Security Income
Since SSI is a needs-based program, if approved, benefits start with the first full calendar month after you are deemed disabled; however, in no case are you able to collect SSI benefits before your protected filing date. Like SSDI back pay, SSI back pay benefits accrue starting on the date you applied. SSI back pay is paid in installments, not a lump sum. This is because lump sum payments could put a strain on SSI financial resources.
Retroactive Benefits
If the Social Security Administration (SSA) decides your medical condition qualifies as a disability, it will assign you an onset date. This is the date you became eligible for disability benefits because of your inability to work.
If your onset date is before your application date, you may be eligible for retroactive benefits for the months separating those two dates. However, retroactive benefits are only available for SSDI applicants.
The five-month waiting period also applies to retroactive benefits, and you cannot collect these benefits for more than 12 months. For example, if your onset date was 24 months before you applied, you would not receive benefits for all 24 months. You would receive benefits starting on the eighth month after your onset date. You would not receive benefits for the five months before your application date.
It is important to note the SSA may make your application your onset date. If you believe you were disabled before that date, you should discuss it with a licensed attorney. He or she may be able to advocate for changing your onset date to make you eligible for retroactive benefits.
Unsure If You Are Eligible? Give Us a Call
Sigman Janssen is here to help with disability applications or appealing denied claims. An initial consultation with us will give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about Social Security Disability, including whether certain dependents of disability recipients may be eligible for benefits.
You are not obligated to retain our services, but if you do, you pay nothing up front unless we help you obtain benefits.
Get started today by calling (877) 888-5201.