Disabled Adult Child Benefits in Baltimore, VA & D.C.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) exists because people work and pay into the system of retirement benefits but sometimes have to stop working early because of health problems.

With SSDI, you’re not just out of luck after years of working and paying taxes if you can’t work but don’t qualify for retirement yet.

But what about someone who never could work? You didn’t pay taxes and gain eligibility for benefits on your own. But if your parents did, there could be help for you.

These are the qualifications for Social Security disabled adult child benefits:

• You’re at least 18.
• You have one or more health conditions that make it impossible to work.
• Your medical records are clear that you will have these conditions for at least a year.
• Your medical conditions that qualify for disability benefits started before age 22.
• At least one of your parents worked and paid an eligible amount in Social Security taxes and now receives retirement or disability benefits, or the eligible parent is deceased.
• You aren’t married (except in some situations, such as if the person you’re married to is also eligible for benefits as a disabled adult child).

You have to back up each of these points with documentation.

To prove your health problem is severe enough to qualify for benefits, you’ll need medical records, test results, doctors’ reports and more.

To prove you qualify for benefits as the child of a worker who paid into the system, you’ll need official identification documents, your parent’s Social Security number and information about your parent’s work history and Social Security record.

Part of the job of a disability advocate is to help you pull all of this information together, and fill out all the forms correctly, so you have the best chance at getting approved for Social Security Disability.

You pay no fee for a disability advocate until you win benefits.

Get a FREE disability claim consultation with Mathis & Mathis.

This is how they calculate how much you’ll receive as a disabled adult child of a Social Security beneficiary:

• They’ll take your parent’s “average indexed monthly earnings,” or AIME, which is an average of up to 35 years of your parent’s income from working.
• They’ll place the AIME number into a scale that pays a bigger portion of your parent’s historical earnings if they had a lower income and a smaller portion for a higher income. This creates what Social Security calls your parent’s “primary insurance amount” or PIA, which is the amount of benefits your parent qualifies for themselves.
• To come up with your benefit as a disabled adult child, they’ll calculate half of your parent’s PIA. Or if your parent has died, they’ll count 75% of their PIA. That will be the basis for your monthly payment.
• One more filter applies before you get your final amount. Social Security places a maximum on how much all the members of a family can receive from one person’s Social Security eligibility. So, if multiple family members receive benefits based on your parent’s record, your monthly payment could be reduced.
• In addition to monthly income support, you may also be able to receive Medicare or Medicaid health care coverage with your disability benefits.

Every family is different. Your monthly payment amount will vary depending on your circumstances.

To give you a general idea of these benefits, in 2023 the national average Social Security was paying to people getting disabled adult child benefits was a little over $1,000 per month.

If your disabled adult child benefits are low enough, and you have little in the way of savings, investments or property, you may also be able to receive another form of disability benefit, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which could add to your financial assistance.

When you can’t work because of health problems, any amount of financial aid helps you cover your basic needs and have more stability in your life.

The disability advocates at Mathis & Mathis help you get there.

You can get us on your claim from anywhere in Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and beyond.

Contact Mathis & Mathis to pursue all Social Security Disability benefits available to you.

Because applying for Social Security Disability benefits can be complicated, you likely have many questions about the process. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions.