People suffering from long-term disabilities rely on SSDI compensation to cover their expenses. You must submit an application for benefits to the Social Security Administration, which will determine whether to approve your claim. People who are disabled and completely unable to work often assume that their petition would be accepted without a doubt. Regrettably, this is rarely the case, and work credits are frequently involved.
A Social Security disability attorney can guide you through these challenges if you have a long-term impairment and can not work. You must also check out conditions that qualify for LTD in the United States.
Work Credits: An Overview
Like other types of insurance, Social Security disability insurance requires contributions before payments are paid out. Work credits are the SSA’s estimation of your contribution to the SSDI program. Depending on your total annual salary, you could earn up to four credits each year that you were employed. A Social Security disability attorney should be able to aid you if you work for yourself or are unclear about whether you have enough work credits.
Calculating Work Credits
The criteria for total annual income can be unclear. One explanation is that the income cutoff varies yearly; for example, in 2022, you must make $1,510 to qualify for a credit. You will not have four credits until you have made at least $6,040. Only two credits would be awarded if you only made half that much. You must stress that you can only acquire four credits a year.
To be eligible for SSDI benefits, you must have 40 credits. A minimum of half of the credits must be recent acquisitions. To establish if you are eligible for benefits, you can use this computation with the help of a Social Security disability attorney.
Younger Employees May be Eligible with Fewer Credits.
Younger persons, however, can be eligible for benefits with fewer credits. Workers younger than 42 only require 20 credits; beyond that, the requirement rises by two credits every two years. For instance, a worker who is 44 years old requires 22 credits, a worker who is 46 years old needs 24, and so on until they are 62.
The necessary number of years is also changed. Workers 31 to 42 years old or younger must have obtained half of those credits during the previous five years—every two years of age results in a six-month rise in the increments. A Social Security disability attorney can pinpoint precisely how many credits you need to accrue to be eligible for benefits if you are younger and handicapped.
