So, you have a qualifying disability and meet the work credit requirements? Now you may be wondering how much money you can get from SSDI to help you pay for bills, food, shelter, health care costs and more. However, it’s important to note that SSDI benefits are not meant to cover the entirety of your lost income; it’s solely to replace part of your lost income so that you can still pay for your necessities. That means you won’t receive the same amount you were once getting when working your job.

The SSA determines how much you will get in SSDI benefits by totaling up your lifetime earnings before you became disabled. This means the severity of your condition or your age does not have any impact on how much you can get. There are other factors that could impact how much money you can get in SSDI benefits. If you receive other forms of financial assistance, such as the following, you may receive a lower amount in monthly SSDI benefits:

• Retirement benefits from the state or local government.
• Workers’ compensation from a job-related injury or condition.
• Temporary financial assistance from the state.
• Civil service disability benefits.

The SSA sees these financial assistance payments as a form of income, which reduces the amount you can get in SSDI.

There are some types of financial assistance payments that aren’t considered in determining how much you can get in SSDI benefits. For example, if you get benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), you will not receive a lower amount of SSDI benefits due to receiving these forms of financial assistance.

Overall, the average amount for SSDI payments is $1,483

per month. Spouses and qualifying dependents may also be able to receive up to 50% of the amount you qualify for. But the SSA limits the amount of money that SSDI recipients and their families can receive. The family maximum is currently 85% of the disabled worker’s lifetime earnings, or no more than $3,148 per month.

Before receiving your first SSDI benefits payment, you can actually calculate how much you may be eligible to get using the SSA benefits calculator online. You need the following bits of personal information to use this tool and get an estimate of how much your SSDI benefits could be:

• Your birth date.
• Your annual earnings for each year between 1951 and 2022.
• The age at which you stopped or plan to stop working.

It’s important to note that after the SSA determines you are eligible to receive benefits, you won’t start getting payments right away. In fact, there’s a five-month waiting period between when your application is approved and when you receive your benefits.

However, there are some qualifying disabilities that actually streamline the waiting period or eliminate it altogether. For example, if you have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the SSA will begin to pay your SSDI benefits in the month after approving your application.