When a disability prevents you from working and earning a living, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) provides a financial lifeline with monthly cash payments. As crucial as those monthly benefits may be, they are only one of the available benefits with SSDI.
Learning about the benefits available through the Social Security Administration and other sources can be challenging, but you can rely on the disability professionals at Sackett and Associates for assistance. The information in this article explains some of the SSDI additional benefits you could miss out on simply by not being aware of them.
Monthly Cash Benefits With SSDI
If you have a disabling medical condition preventing you from working, you may qualify for SSDI. Social Security only pays benefits for physical or mental impairments lasting for at least 12 months or expected to result in death. It does not pay benefits for short-term or partial disability.
The amount of the monthly cash payments you receive from SSDI depends on your average lifetime earnings. The maximum monthly benefit in 2025 is $4,018, with the average SSDI benefit paid to disabled workers being $1,580, according to the Social Security Administration.
Approval of your application for SSDI benefits provides more monthly payments to live on. SSDI recipients become eligible for several other benefits.
Medicare
Twenty-four months after receiving your first monthly SSDI benefit payment, you become eligible for Medicare Parts A and B. Part A covers medical expenses incurred when hospitalized. Part B pays for outpatient services, office visits with your doctors and other healthcare providers.
You can choose additional coverages through Medicare, provided you enroll in them and pay the premium. For instance, Part D pays for prescription medications. If you want Part D benefits, you have to enroll on your own and pay the premium.
The 24-month waiting period for Medicare coverage does not apply to someone diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. A person with ALS becomes eligible for Medicare coverage upon approval for SSDI benefits.
The other exception to the 24-month wait period applies to SSDI applicants diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), also known as permanent kidney failure. If a person receives dialysis treatments, Medicare eligibility starts on the first day of the fourth month after the first treatment or sooner when a person undergoes a kidney transplant.
Supplemental Security Income Benefits
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a needs-based program for individuals with limited income and resources who are blind, disabled, or 65 or older. When you submit an application for disability benefits through the SSDI program, the Social Security Administration reviews it to determine whether you also meet the eligibility requirements for SSI.
Although the monthly benefit payments you get from SSDI count as income for determining SSI eligibility, you could be approved to receive benefits through both programs. Concurrent benefits occur when your SSDI benefit payments do not exceed the income limits for SSI eligibility.
An individual’s maximum monthly federal SSI benefit payment in 2025 is $967. Eligible couples can receive $1,450. The amount you receive from SSI would be reduced by the money you receive from other income sources, including SSDI.
Medicaid
Medicaid provides health coverage for individuals meeting its eligibility requirements. Jointly financed by states and the federal government, Medicaid eligibility is determined by each state using its own requirements and broad guidelines set by the federal government.
SSDI recipients who meet the income and other requirements for eligibility in the state where they reside do not have a waiting period for Medicaid coverage, as with the Medicare program. Medicaid begins immediately with coverage for services not covered by Medicare, such as:
- Long-term nursing home care
- Dental
- Vision
When your Medicare coverage begins, Medicaid coverage continues as the secondary payer of benefits, with Medicare as the primary.
SNAP and other food assistance
Federal and state food assistance programs may be available to you as an SSDI beneficiary. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) offers low-income individuals and families the ability to purchase food. SSDI food stamps eligibility and other food assistance programs, including SNAP, are typically based on income and resources.
SSDI Ticket to Work program
The Ticket to Work program, provided through the Social Security Administration, gives individuals receiving SSDI benefits access to job training, vocational rehabilitation, and other forms of assistance to help them return to work. One aspect of the program allows you to attempt a return to working without affecting your monthly benefits during a trial work period.
Talk To A Disability Professional About Other Benefits Available To You
The disability lawyers at Sackett and Associates do more than assist with SSDI and SSI applications and challenging claim denials through the appeal process. Let them be your source for information about SSDI housing assistance and the other benefits available to you. Whether you live in Northern California or anywhere in the country, contact Sackett Law today for a free consultation.
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