Understanding Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
Posted on Wednesday, December 10 2008

Providing valuable benefits to employees who may not be able to return to work

Disability insurance helps protect people’s financial security when they can’t work due to an illness or injury. Long-term disability (LTD) insurance helps ensure that people promptly receive all the benefits to which they are entitled. We also encourage people to apply for other benefits they may be qualified to receive. These benefits may include workers’ compensation, state disability programs, vocational rehabilitation programs, and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Private disability insurance is intended to coordinate with SSDI benefits, not replace them. Not only does this insurance provide additional income protection for disabled employees, private disability insurance typically includes robust services that help those employees get back to work. SSDI can help qualified employees with disabilities get important benefits. These benefits include health care coverage through Medicare and the ability to continue disability benefits if their private coverage ends. SSDI guarantees income until retirement age – 65 or older – when employees qualify for Social Security retirement income. Medicare benefits (available after 24 months of SSDI entitlement) are especially important to people with long illnesses or injuries.

In addition to Medicare, SSDI may provide:

dependent benefits for children under 18 (19 if they are in school)

benefits for spouses who need to be at home to care for a child 16 or younger

vocational assistance and financial support through return-to-work programs, such as "Ticket to Work"

future income protection (even after private LTD benefits end), because SSDI provides benefits equivalent to full retirement age (65-67), regardless of actual age when they apply for SSDI

cost of living adjustments (COLA)

disability work incentives with a nine-month trial work period

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