What's The Five Month Waiting Period On Social Security Disability?

Disability claimants who are approved to receive Social Security disability insurance benefits (referred to as SSDI, SSD, and Title II disability benefits) are subject to a five-month waiting period before Social Security owes the claimant disability benefits. This means that the Social Security Administration (SSA) will withhold five months of an accepted claimant's benefits before commencing monthly payments (or, more likely, before determining back payments owed to the claimant, since it takes so long to get a disability approval). 

Exceptions to the Waiting Period

SSI claimants who've been approved to receive disability benefits aren't subject to the five-month waiting period. SSI claimants will be qualified to receive their very first payment on the first of the month after they submit an application for disability (but they will likely receive the first few months' payments in SSI back payments, since the SSA takes no less than a couple of months to grant disability benefits).

If you were approved for SSDI benefits, went back to work, stopped getting benefits, and then become disabled again, you won't need to wait five months to get benefits, provided no more than five years has passed between your first onset date of disability and the second. This is called expedited reinstatement.

If you are trying to get benefits as the child of a disabled employee, your application isn't at the mercy of any waiting period.

When the Waiting Period Starts

The five-month waiting period starts on the claimant's established onset date (EOD) of disability. (This is the date that the SSA states the claimant became disabled.) Hence the date of entitlement to Social Security benefits (when the claimant will be owed a monthly payment) does not start until five months after the EOD.

For more great information about SSI and SSDI benefits, call Kassin and Carrow today at 1-800-273-8380!