DISABILITY
INSURANCE BENEFITS (DIB)
Title II
To receive Disability Insurance
Benefits you must have worked and paid
Social Security taxes for 20 quarters (5
years) out of the past 40 quarters (10
years) and have earned a minimum amount
per quarter. This time period is
measured backward from the alleged date
of onset of your disability, but does
not go further back than when you were
21 years old.
The minimum earnings amount varies,
but for 2003 it is $890.00 per quarter.
The disability insurance benefits
program was added to the Social Security
system in 1956.
Benefits range from $1.00 to a
maximum that is dependent upon how much
and for how long a person has paid into
the system.
Dependents of a disabled worker can
receive monetary benefits but not a
medical benefits card.
The Medicare card comes with
Disability Insurance Benefits. You
cannot get the Medicare card until 24
months after disability payments begin.
There are no prescription drug benefits
under the Medicare card and only limited
days per year in a hospital or nursing
home. |
SUPPLEMENTAL
SECURITY INCOME (SSI)
TITLE XVI
To receive Supplemental Security
Income benefits you do not need to have
worked or paid into the Social Security
system at all. SSI is at heart a welfare
system for very poor people. These are
people who have never worked, or haven't
worked enough to have earned the
necessary quarters to qualify for
disability Social Security, or who have
not worked in the past five years as of
the alleged date of onset of disability.
DIB claimants whose benefits are less
than the SSI maximum are eligible to
receive SSI payments so that the
combined DIB and SSI benefits equal the
SSI maximum.
The SSI program began in 1974
Benefits can range from $1.00 to a
maximum of $552.00 per month.
Dependents of an SSI recipient are
not entitled to receive any monetary
benefits.
The Medicaid card comes with SSI
benefits and begins the same month that
SSI benefits begin. The Medicaid card
provides more coverage than the Medicare
card. For example Medicaid pays for some
prescription medications as well as for
long term nursing care. |
