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This Google search question led a recent visitor to the blog: Can disability go retroactive from the onset date rather than the date you apply for benefits?

I will answer that question right now.

Disability benefits are never paid retroactively from the onset date, because by definition you were not disabled prior to your onset date. However, both your onset date and your filing date are relevant to the determination of your benefits. 

For an SSI claim, benefits begin on your filing date if your claim is granted. There are no benefits available prior to your filing date for SSI, regardless of your onset date.

For Social Security disability, retroactive disability benefits are paid for up to 12 months prior to your filing date, depending upon the interrelation beween your filing date, your onset date and the 5 month waiting period. 

Benefits begin 5 months after your onset date. However, retroactive benefits do not extend further back than 12 months prior to your filing date. Let's look at an example.

Continue Reading Google Search Question – 3

An award of disability benefits under the Social Security disability insurance program comes with Medicare insurance. But not right away. Rather, the insurance begins two years after your date of entitlement. Your date of entitlement is your onset date plus the 5 month Title II waiting period.

In a typical disability case, that…

There are three possible decisions for a Social Security disability claim: fully favorable, unfavorable, and partially favorable. A partially favorable decision grants part of a disability claim.

Occasionally, a partially favorable decision makes a determination that you were disabled for a period of time, but are no longer disabled and not entitled to ongoing benefits. This…

The reentitlement period is a safety net for Title II disability recipients who return to work. The reentitlement period begins at the end of the 9-month trial work period, and lasts for 36 months.

If you cannot continue working at the SGA level due to your disabling impairments during the 36-month rentitlement period, you do not…

"Trial work" is a concept that applies to people already receiving Title II disability benefits. Sometimes Title II recipients will attempt to return to work to see how it goes. Social Security encourages this, and allows a 9 month period for a person to still receive benefits while testing his or her ability to work. However, this trial work can be a trap for the unwary.

Some recipients try working part-time, and may earn less than the SGA amount. They assume their disability benefits will not be affected by this part-time work. After all, they were allowed earn that much when they applied for disability benefits. But the trial work amount is quite a bit less than SGA, and this can cause problems for people who earn more than the trial work amount.

After 9 months of trial work, Social Security can terminate your benefits if you reach the level of SGA. The 9 months of trial are not necessarily consecutive, so a few months here and there of part-time employment can consume the trial work period. The SSA looks at a five-year period for trial work, so that 9th month of trial work can sneak up on you. So what should you do? Continue Reading Trial Work

Your onset date is the date your disability began. The date represents a confluence of when you were not working at SGA and when you had a medically determinable impairment that is expected to last a year or more.

The “alleged” onset date is selected at the time of filing a disability claim. Once you…

Your PIA is your "Primary Insurance Amount." That is the Social Security term for the amount of your monthly benefit, should you retire or become disabled.

Your PIA depends on how much you have paid into the system. Social Security has a complicated formula to calculate it. In general, sporadic workers may have a disability…