MUST DISABILITY BE PERMANENT?

MUST A DISABILITY BE PERMANENT TO QUALIFY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS? No. A disability does not need to be permanent to be eligible for SSDI benefits. It must last for 12 consecutive months, or be expected to last for 12 consecutive months, or to end in death. In short, there is no benefit for a short-term disability that is expected to resolve within 1 year.

Also, Social Security will not pay a benefit for the first 5 months you are disabled. So, if you are found to have become disabled on June 7, 2017 (and the disability is expected to last for 12 consecutive months or more), benefits would become payable in December, 2017. The months of June - November would be used to satisfy the waiting period.

Social Security really does not consider most disability cases to be permanent. They will usually conduct a Continuing Disability Review (CDR) about every 3 years to determine if there has been substantial medical improvement. If there has, the benefit can be terminated. The decision to terminate a benefit is subject to appeal.