If you are unable to work due to an illness or health condition, you can apply for Social Security Disability benefits. One of the questions we are often asked by our clients is how much they will receive.
The answer to that depends on the extent of your work history and the existence of other income sources. For example, Social Security states that if you worked for a government entity prior to your disability and you receive some type of payment from that source, then it could lower your payment amount.
To gain a rough estimate, there is an online calculator that you can use. You will need to provide your yearly earnings for each year since 1951. For the current year of 2016 and for 2017, you must enter an estimated amount that you expect to earn. If there are no earnings for certain years, you can leave the amount as zero. This may require some digging back into your records but if you have kept your Social Security statements over the years, this should be fairly easy to locate.
You will also need to enter your birthdate and the date at which you had planned to retire. If you have no earnings to enter, you could use a parent’s or spouse’s earnings if those are the ones you intend to use to apply for benefits.
The online calculator will then use this information to provide you with an estimate of your disability insured status and what your monthly benefit payment could be. However, it should be understood that this is only to be used as a rough estimate since other factors may affect the final decision. For more information on seeking benefits for your disability, please visit our web page concerning the subject.
