Work Eligibility

Social Security Disability Insurance – Work Eligibility

Many disabled Americans receive benefits from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) to support themselves financially.  However there are many aspects of the SSDI program that the average American – disabled or not disabled – is not aware of.

First of all, the SSDI program has work eligibility requirements that must be met for a person to qualify for benefits.  If a person has not worked in a long enough period of time they will be ineligible for benefits from the SSDI program.  This is because the SSDI program is fundamentally a workers insurance program.  The SSDI program functions like an insurance program and the FICA taxes that Americans pay are essentially the premium payments on the SSDI insurance program.

However, like other types of insurance if the premiums have not been paid in a long enough period of time the insurance will lapse.

This does not leave disabled Americans hopeless if they do not qualify for SSDI because they may still be eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) assistance.

The SSDI program is specifically structured to be an insurance type program for American’s as it is written in to Title 2 of the Social Security Act.  It is crucial that disabled American’s who are in need of financial assistance do the proper research to ensure they are eligible for the program they are applying to.