SSI / SSDI Are Determined to be Confusing

[Hound dog]

I'm sure they can figure out what they're doing, but I'm confused, which these days is not difficult I admit. Lately my brain isn't cooperating too much.

So, jest of it is............Travis got notified that disability has accepted him and that he'll get x amt per month. Ok, fine, great, wonderful news. Then they go on to say they are back dating it from when he was declared disabled. Um ok, makes sense. Until you get to the date. They're back dating it a year. Travis didn't file a year ago. Now, hold on........not even gotten to the confusing part yet. lol

So, same day he gets that one he gets one from SSI. It states that he'll continue to get x amt of money. And from what I've deduced so far, it's at the same time as the other........so he'll get both.

Now my brain might not be cooperating, but I'm sure you're not supposed to get both. (while that would be great cuz the family income would shoot up to a positive instead of in the hole deep every month) And they seemed to know that disability is going to pay him too.

I'm going to have to read over it again and then have pc read over it tomorrow. He got something else today and I just told him (he read it, I didn't) to stick it in my file drawer I'll read it tomorrow with the others. Makes my head hurt, I swear.

I'm sure these two are communicating with each other as they're actually the same darn thing basically. So what's up? Any known reason both would pay the boy? Cuz that just does not make sense to me.

[TeDo]

I have applied for gfg1, who receives SSDI on my account, that he would continue to get his SSDI and that amount will be deducted from whatever SSI he might get. I also had several clients when I was a county social worker that did receive both. My understanding is that the amount of the disability is based on the amount in their social security credit earnings (hard to describe) but if it's not up "enough", then SSI makes up the difference. It IS confusing but the way it was explained to me years ago made sense.......too bad my brain doesn't work so well any more either or I could explain it better.

Put simply, YES, he can get both!

[Hound dog]

Well, knowing someone can get both makes me feel better.

But SSDI is giving him the full amt someone can get (or at least what I ever heard of anyone getting), so why would SSI be adding to it? If I'm understanding it correctly, and granted I could easily not be, he'll be getting total about 1100.00 per mo and that doesn't sound right. I wonder if SSI might be staying tacked on to do the back payments if they've dated it back so far??

I'll make a big pot of coffee in the morning and then reread it all. I'm sure there is an explanation in there somewhere.

[TeDo]

Is that total for both put together? I get more than that and I'm only on disability.

[Hound dog]

Hmm. Maybe I am used to the child amt then. That's an estimate of the two combined.......760 from disability and 450 from SSI or there about.

But then he just got a new letter (they've flooded him in the past 2 days) saying he will no longer get SSI but he's not been removed from SSI. omg I think they make it confusing on purpose. lol

[witzend]

That's one good thing about having an attorney help - they're able to determine which one is better for you to apply for (I don't think you're supposed to apply for both) and can answer questions like this one.

As for the one year thing, you may not have applied a year ago, but Travis was disabled a year ago and would have been eligible at that point had you applied. They go back to the date of disability (maybe not more than a year?) and so long as you were eligible.

How is your application process going? Yours might be more difficult. Have you seen an attorney yet?

[flutterby]

SSI starts to pay much more quickly than SSDI. SSI is handled by your local SSA office, while SSDI is computed from a regional office - mine was in Chicago.

So, say they are paying him $450.00 month for SSI. Once SSDI gets their butt in gear and starts paying, SSI will stop (you'll get a letter about that), SSDI will pay the back pay (you'll get a letter or 3 about that), but the amount won't exceed the $760/mo. So, for the months he received SSI, they will subtract the $450 from the $760 and pay him the difference ($310.00). In the end, he will end up receiving the full $760 a month, it's just convoluted in getting there.

[witzend]

SSI starts to pay much more quickly than SSDI. SSI is handled by your local SSA office, while SSDI is computed from a regional office - mine was in Chicago.

So, say they are paying him $450.00 month for SSI. Once SSDI gets their butt in gear and starts paying, SSI will stop (you'll get a letter about that), SSDI will pay the back pay (you'll get a letter or 3 about that), but the amount won't exceed the $760/mo. So, for the months he received SSI, they will subtract the $450 from the $760 and pay him the difference ($310.00). In the end, he will end up receiving the full $760 a month, it's just convoluted in getting there.

Geez that's confusing!

[flutterby]

It is interesting that SSI is going back a full year since he didn't apply that long ago. I was told that SSI will not go beyond the application date. Even though my SSDI found me disabled in 2007 (this determination was made in 2011), SSI started paying based on my application date of September, 2009. I got 2 larger payments, 2 months apart from SSI, plus the monthly SSI amount starting in October, 2011. Then when SSDI finally started paying in January, 2012, SSI stopped and SSDI deducted the difference between what they pay and what SSI had already paid when I got my retro pay in February, 2012. Confusing, but it's just math. If he's supposed to get $760 a month from SSDI, calculate $760 times however many months and you'll be able to roughly determine how much money he'll get in backpay. Keep in mind that SSDI doesn't pay for 5 or 6 months after the date the person was found to be disabled. So, if Travis was found to be disabled a year ago, SSDI won't pay for the first 5 months of that.

[flutterby]

You should also have him apply at Jobs and Family Services to 1) see if he also qualifies for medicaid, and/or 2) if they will cover the cost of medicare. Since his income is so low, I think they will at the very least cover his medicare expense which is $100 a month that would otherwise be deducted from his SSDI payment.