Benefits & Payments
The money side: how your benefit amount is figured, back pay and the five-month waiting period, Medicare and Medicaid, benefits for your family, whether disability is taxable, how SSI living arrangements affect your check, and what happens at retirement age.
All Benefits & Payments guides
- Disability Back Pay and Retroactive Benefits
How SSDI and SSI back pay is calculated, what onset date means, and how attorney fees are paid from your award.
- What Happens to Disability When You Reach Retirement Age?
SSDI automatically converts to retirement benefits at full retirement age; SSI's disability requirement stops applying at 65. No gap, no re-review, nothing to file.
- SSI Payments, Living Arrangements, and In-Kind Support
Why SSI checks differ person to person: how free or reduced shelter from others and your living arrangement can lower the payment, why food no longer counts, and how state supplements work.
- How Your Disability Benefit Amount Is Calculated
SSDI pays based on your lifetime earnings, not how severe your disability is. SSI starts from a federal base and subtracts countable income.
- Family and Dependent Benefits on SSDI
How spouses and children can get dependent benefits on a disabled worker's SSDI record, the disabled-adult-child rule, and the family maximum cap.
- Are Social Security Disability Benefits Taxable?
SSDI can be partially taxable above IRS income thresholds; SSI never is. How the tax rules and lump-sum back pay work.
- The Five-Month Waiting Period for SSDI
SSDI benefits start the 6th full month after your onset date. Here's how the 5-month wait works, why it exists, and SSI's different rules.
- Medicare and Medicaid for Disability Recipients
SSDI usually means Medicare after a 24-month wait (shorter for ALS/ESRD); SSI usually means Medicaid right away in most states.