How Does Back Pay Work For SSI and SSDI benefits?

If you are considering making an application for disability benefits under SSI or SSDI, you may not know exactly how significant it is to get your application for benefits in as quickly as possible. The primary reason for this is the possibility that a quick application has to boost the amount of back pay that you will receive whenever your case is eventually approved. If you aren't familiar with how back pay for Edwardsville, Illinois SSI and SSDI benefits works, pay attention to this important information from the law offices of Kassin and Carrow in Edwardsville, IL and St. Peters, MO.

It ought to come as no real surprise that the judge awarding your benefits will take the date that you were disabled into consideration when deciding how far your back pay goes. When you and your attorney apply for Social Security Disability initially, you will choose an AOD, which refers to Alleged Onset Date. What this means is that it is the date that you think you became disabled. Once the process is allowed to carry on to its conclusion, the DDS disability examiner or administrative law judge will allot what's referred to as an EOD, or Established Onset Date. That is the date that the examiner or judge has determined that your disability really started based on the work and medical records surrounding the case. Although the EOD can be important for individuals applying for SSI as well, that is not always the case. As a rule, you can't get SSI back pay on benefits before the date of application, but you can get restricted to only the time following the EOD if the EOD is following the application date.

Of the three main issues influencing back pay, the date that you file your application is probably among the most important. It makes sense to take into consideration application date with a disability filing because benefits such as that take a very long time to process. The process may be long and complicated, which is the reason why you need an experienced disability law attorney like Kassin and Carrow. The exact way in which the application date impacts back pay is determined by whether you're filing for SSI or SSDI benefits. As stated earlier, for SSI you can get back pay only to the first of the month once you apply for benefits. In contrast, SSDI enables you to collect for the twelve months preceding your application in some circumstances.

One thing that always throws people for a loop when applying for SSDI disability benefits is the five-month waiting period which can be applied to the back pay that you're qualified for. Don’t get confused; this waiting period does not affect SSI benefits, just SSDI benefits. The number is reasonably arbitrary, however it is one of those legal hurdles that make it a good idea to have the guidance of a disability law attorney. How the waiting period works is that you don't get back pay on benefits for five months following your EOD if your EOD was prior to your application date. As an example, let’s say that you were determined to be disabled in January (your EOD.) But, you filed in November of the same year. With there being ten months between your EOD and your filing date, you can subtract the five-month waiting period from that ten months to get five months of back pay benefits that you will get.

As you can most likely tell, working out the stressful maze of St. Peters, MO disability benefits is hard. You can most likely also tell that the stakes are way too high to take chances with it. Therefore, the best thing that you can do is get in touch with an attorney who focuses specifically on SSI and SSDI benefit law. For people who live in the Metro East St. Louis Illinois area, the law firm to go to is Kassin and Carrow.