If you or a loved one suffers from a disability and is unable to work, you may want to know the amount that you can earn as a monthly Social Security Disability (SSD) benefit amount. The SSD benefits program is supposed to provide financial support to those who meet the following criteria:
- You are unable to work because of mental or physical health impairment(s) that prevent you from working and meet the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) standard and definition of disability; and
- You have earned enough at a job or through self-employment and paid sufficient Social Security taxes to qualify for Social Security Disability benefits.
How is your SSD benefit amount determined?
Before calculating your SSD benefits amount, the SSA takes into consideration two main factors. Firstly, it looks at your work history to decide if you have accumulated sufficient work credits to qualify for SSD benefits. And secondly, the SSA determines whether your mental or physical health condition(s) qualify as a disability within the purview of the SSA “Listing of Impairments” (also called the “Bluebook”).
This helps determine eligibility for SSD benefits. Once the claimant fulfills the eligibility conditions, the SSA uses its formula to determine the monthly disability benefits. It is done with the following steps:
Finding Claimant’s 35 Highest-Earning Years
To compute the claimant’s disability benefits amount, the SSA considers every yearly income reported by the IRS since the claimant started working. Then, it identifies the 35 highest-earning years that such a person had and indexes them against the national average income for each of those years.
The indexed 35 years are then added together, before being divided by 35 to arrive at the annual average income. The figure is then divided by 12 to find out the claimant’s Average Indexed Monthly Earnings, or AIME.
Processing Of AIME Through the Benefit Formula
Once the AIME figure is computed, Social Security uses its Benefits Formula to calculate the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), the amount the claimant will receive as the monthly SSD benefits payment amount.
Let us explain this concept through an illustration:
Assume the AIME figure to be to be $2,000.
- Add 90% of the first $1,024 in the AIME= $921.60 plus
- 32% of the AIME between $1,024 and $6,172: = (2,000 – 1,024 = $976 x .32 = $312.32) plus
- 15% of the AIME above $2,000= $0
- Therefore, $921.60+ $312.32+ $0= $1,233.92, then
- Rounding down to the lowest $0.10= $1,233.90
However, this is just an illustration based on a random AIME. To find your Social Security Disability benefits amount, you must find 35 highest-earning years by visiting the “my Social Security” website and logging in or opening your account. Then, you can easily compute your AIME and apply the given formula to calculate your disability benefits.
Since there will be different yearly earnings and AIME figures for every individual claimant, every claimant will earn a different SSD benefit amount. However, no one can receive the maximum permissible SSD benefit amount, which is $3,627 a month in 2023.
Free Consultation and Case Review
If you or a loved one is wondering about how much monthly disability benefits you can win, you must speak with an experienced SSD benefits lawyer.
Francis Babet loves pursuing excellence through writing and has a passion for Legal. He currently writes for The Law Firm, a USA Based Law Firm that provides SSD, SSI, SSDI, Personal Injury, and Drugs and Devices. His work has been published on various sites related to Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income, and more.