Hi, this is Don Jorgensen again with MySocialSecurityAttorney.com and this… today’s topic is going to be Social Security Disability Benefits, SSDI vs. SSI, what’s best for me?

Now, in order to understand Social Security, or SSI vs. SSDI, let me take a step back. Social Security, everyone knows or most people know about Social Security retirement. What most people don’t know is that there’s a whole other area of Social Security which is for disability. It’s a safety net for society and that safety net is broken up into two different parts. One is SSI Disability and one is Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

Now, what’s the difference? From a disability standpoint, they’re exactly the same. In other words, the proof required for SSI is the same as SSDI, but the non-medical proof is what they’re different or where they differ.

Let’s start with SSDI or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Now, again, we’re not talking about the medical proof, we’ll talk about it in a minute. It’s the non-medical proof that we’re talking about.

SSDI, if you as an employee have been working fulltime for five out of the last 10 years, then your employer has been paying into the Social Security for you and what’s been happening is you’ve been purchasing essentially an insurance policy in the event you become disabled, and now that you’re disabled, now that you can’t work, that’s when that insurance policy is due and you can collect on it.

Here’s the catch, once you stop working, your insurance policy only continues for five years. Once that five years is up, you no longer are insured.

SSDI offers monthly income based on how much money you paid into the system. It could be anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars all the way up to, you know, more than $2,000 depending on how much you’re paying over the last, you know, five to ten years of your career.

You also can be eligible for Medicare. Now, with Medicare, you have to be found disabled for two years before you would receive the medical insurance portion of SSDI. Other than that, you know, those are the main things you receive, the monthly income and the medical insurance. But if you’re like most people, what you really want is good medical insurance and enough money to survive each month. That’s what SSDI will offer you. So if you’ve paid into this system, then you would qualify non-medically.

Now, step away from that for a minute. What is SSI? SSI stands for Supplemental Security Income. It’s just that, it’s a supplement and so if you have income coming in from somewhere else, then the amount of money SSI pays would be an offset, in other words, you would receive that much less from SSI. So let’s just say, for example, you’re receiving child support of $500 a month, well, that would be $500 less per month you’ll receive in the event you’ll receive SSI because it’s a supplement.

Okay, but how do you qualify for SSI? For SSI, it’s a need-based program and if you have no income or very little income and your assets, your wealth is less than $2,000 for an individual or, if you’re married, less than $3,000, then you probably qualify for SSI benefits on a non-medical.

So what’s better for you, SSI or SSDI? Well, when you go down to Social Security Administration to apply, if you qualify for SSDI, then they’re going to apply you… they’re going to do an application for SSDI. If you qualify for SSI, they’ll give you an application for that. If you qualify for both, they’re going to apply you for both.

So you don’t really have to make that determination, but the problem comes when you have assets and you have maybe a little bit of income and you make your application, then the person with Social Security will only apply you for SSDI, but then if your situation changes while you’re waiting for the decision and now you have no income, you’ve sold everything, then now you would qualify for SSI if you applied.

If your situation changes, in other words, then you need to make sure and go down to Social Security Administration and make sure they have an SSI claim pending for you also and you can have both claims going at the same time. You can have one denied and one approved, that’s not uncommon, but the big difference is with SSDI, you’ll receive monthly income based on the amount of money you put into the system and after two years of being disabled, you’ll receive Medicare.

Now, SSI, you’ll receive your monthly income and Medi-Cal, which is California’s version of Medicaid. Now, if you’re living outside of California, then if you’re receiving SSDI, you would receive your monthly income and Medicare, but if you’re SSI, you’ll receive your monthly income and Medicaid.

I know there’s little distinction, but California does some of its own programs, but those are the big differences with SSI vs. SSDI. If you have any further questions, please visit our website at www.mysocialsecurityattorney.com or you can look at the side information panel, you can get our website and our phone number. We’re happy to answer any questions and that we’re here for you. We really do want to help you directly or indirectly.

Social Security Representative: The SSI program used to be, you know, referred to as old age assistance and programs like that and what we have is that Supplemental Security Income, for individuals who are aged 65 and older, that hasn’t changed, that hasn’t increased with the full retirement age for retirement. That stayed with Medicare age, age 65.

So SSI is for individuals who are 65 and older who need help because of having limited income and resources or younger individuals who are either blind or disabled with limited income and resources. As long as you own a home and you live in it, then we are going to be fine with you having that property. We’re not going to count it for what it’s actually worth, you know, if you were to try to sell it, because if you’re living in it, you can’t really sell it. You need a place to live in.

So for SSI, we do help individuals, even if they have a fairly nice asset like a home because it’s not saleable while you’re living in it.

Social Security Representative: I was thinking a little bit about this while I was planning to give the answer. What I really wanted to add to this is that our clients need to actually ask these questions of us. You know, they’re great to talk about on our TV show, but if this is going to happen with a client, when do you think the client should come in and ask the question. You know, ten months after they got the money, or you know, when they find out that their NV will or in the state. Contact us, ask us the question, and we can help the individual to prepare better to have this money actually do have some good. You know, if you’re going to inherit $5,000 and you have to use the money for the funeral expenses, then we’re going to find a way that we don’t count this money if it’s all spent on the funeral bill.

But if you’re going to get that money and you’re going to be able to say pay off your car bill or car loan, then come in and talk to us and we’re going to advise you that the month you get the money that month you’ve got to go in there and actually pay it on this bill, so that you only lose your SSI for the one month.

But try not to ask these questions after the fact. When you’re on a benefit program like SSI, it’s best that the individual contact us. Go right into our website. We’ve got answer to some of these questions right there. You can search it out and ask, you know, income or inheritance affect benefits and the answer would be given to you right on our website, or give us a call and one of our telephone operators would be able to send you a pamphlet on Supplemental Security Income and that might explain the information a little bit better.

Ken Hess: Well, when we do a Supplemental Security Income review, that’s the financial program, that’s the needs program. We end up handling that government program where we take income that we receive (that’s tax dollars), that supports the SSI program. So to be responsive to tax payers, we have to make sure that the clients who receive benefits are eligible and that they’re within the guidelines of when they applied for benefits. So we do a review on clients infrequently, not every year, at times there might be a couple of years in between. But, the clients do have to go through that financial review with us, either by being available to talk to us on the phone, or by coming in to the office.

And, also for disability clients we review their disability cases too, but usually we’ll just send them the form and let them complete the medical information and send it back to us. We do the financial review for SSI either over the phone or in the office with the client.

And it’s not that we’re worried that our client is doing something wrong, it’s just that we have to be responsive to tax payers and making sure that the program is handled and run properly. And to make sure that the people who are eligible are the ones that continue to receive benefits.