Social Security Disability Benefits For Disabled Adult Children In RI

SSDI provides disability income if you have earned a sufficient number of work credits and you are disabled. The average monthly SSDI benefit as of 2014 is $1,146 and the maximum monthly benefit is $2,642. The amount received is based on how much you earned (and how much tax you paid into the system) while you were working.

Someone who becomes disabled when he or she is very young usually does not get a chance to work enough to qualify for SSDI benefits based on his or her own work record. So the options are DAC benefits (if you qualify) or SSI. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides a maximum benefit of just $721 per month as of 2014 – much less than what’s available through DAC benefits.

Because of the significant difference between SSDI and SSI, children who qualify for DAC benefits based on their parents’ work history could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra income over the course of their lives.

Once a child turns 18, he or she may be eligible for SSDI based on his or her parent’s work record if he or she is considered a Disabled Adult Child. To be considered an “Adult Child,” the applicant must:

• Be over the age of 18 and must have been considered “disabled” before the age of 22.
• Currently meet the definition of “disabled.”

The Social Security Administration has a very narrow definition of what it means to be disabled. The condition or medical problem that you must have to qualify for benefits needs to be listed in the Listing of Impairments, which is also called the “Blue Book.”

Each listed condition has specific symptoms that must accompany it. There is a list of conditions for adults (found in Part A of the Blue Book) that are different from those for children (found in Part B of the Blue Book). If you do not meet a Listing, you must prove that your condition is medically equivalent to those in the Blue Book.