Those who receive disability benefits or are applying to receive them should be aware that other types of benefits may impact the amount of their Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) benefits. Benefits that come from private sources – pension plans or Disability Insurance, for example – do not impact SSDI benefits. Benefits that come from public sources can, however, reduce the amount of SSDI benefits that you can receive.
Workers’ compensation benefits are one type of public benefit that can have an impact on SSDI benefits. You may be receiving workers’ compensation from state or federal agencies or from your employer, but regardless of who is paying the benefits, they will play in a role in determining how much you can receive in SSDI benefits.
Another type of public benefit that impacts the calculation is other types of disability benefits. There are local, state and other federal programs that pay disability benefits that are not related to work. The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) lists the following as examples of such benefits – civil service disability benefits and state temporary disability benefits.
Several types of public benefits that do not have an effect on your SSDI benefits include the following – Veterans Administration benefits, local and state benefits from which Social Security taxes were deducted and Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) benefits.
The point at which the SSA reduces your SSDI benefits is the following – if you add together your SSDI benefits and all the income you receive from benefits that we mentioned above as having an impact on SSDI benefits, the total cannot exceed 80 percent of what you made on average before you became disabled. The SSA will take any amount over that 80 percent figure out of your SSDI benefits.
The interplay between various public benefits can be complex and confusing. Do you have experience with how different benefits impact others?
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security Disability attorneys
