Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits

Do You Qualify for SSDI?

Let Us Put Our Experience to Work for You

Contact the Social Security Disability Law Firm, P.A. for a free consultation if you have been turned down for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), or to find out if you may qualify for benefits. Attorney Chris R. Borgia will personally handle your case and use his extensive knowledge to submit or appeal your claim. We represent clients in Miami-Dade, Broward, and West Palm Beach counties, and throughout Florida. Call toll-free at 1-866-693-4742.

Qualifying for Social Security Disability Insurance

The social security program for workers functions like an insurance plan. A claimant is required to have:

• Contributed to the program (paid social security taxes) over a sufficiently long period to be “fully insured” and
• Contributed to the program recently enough to have “disability insured status”

In short, a worker must have paid social security taxes in order to be “insured,” just like paying the premiums for a private insurance policy.

Generally to be fully insured, a claimant must have one Quarter Credit (“QC”) for every calendar year after the year in which he or she turned 21, up to the calendar year before becoming disabled.

The rule for disability insured status for those over 31 years old is that they must have 20 quarters of coverage out of the 40 calendar quarters before they become disabled. This is referred to as the 20/40 rule. Significant work in five years out of the last 10 years usually satisfies this requirement. For a claimant with a steady work record, insured status will lapse about five years after stopping work. To receive any social security disability benefits, a claimant will have to prove that he or she was disabled before the “date last insured.”

For those who become disabled before age 31 there is a reduced quarter of coverage requirement. Such a younger claimant must have earned QCs in one-half the calendar quarters beginning with the quarter after the quarter in which he or she attained age 21 and ending with the quarter in which he or she became disabled. If the number of elapsing calendar quarters is an odd number, the next lower even number is used. A minimum of 6 QCs is required. If a claimant becomes disabled before age 24, an alternative rule applies. He or she must simply have 6 QCs in the 12-quarter period ending with the quarter in which disability began. Under the alternative rule, there is no requirement that the QCs be earned after attaining age 21.

As a rule those who have “disability insured status” are also “fully insured.” But there are circumstances where this is not so.