Receiving Social Security Back Pay
In Florida, as in most states, the process of applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability (SSD or SSDI) can be incredibly lengthy. This means that when you successfully secure SSI or SSD, you are often owed back payments from the Social Security Administration. These retroactive payments are usually distributed in a lump sum, and there is no maximum amount of disability back payment for SSI and SSD. There are four main factors that can affect the amount of back pay that you receive as a SSI or SSD beneficiary.
Factors that Affect Social Security Back Pay
The first factor is the date that you filed for SSI or SSD. IF you file for SSI, you could potentially receive retroactive payments dating back to the first of the month after you filed for Social Security benefits. If you have what is known as a “protective filing date” earlier than your actual filing date, you may be eligible for payments dating back to that date instead of your filing date. If you are filing for SSD, you can receive retroactive payments that date back to when you first became disabled, even if you applied for Social Security Disability payments at a later date. In this case, your retroactive payments could add up to thousands and be an even more significant contribution than your monthly payments.
The second factor is known as your EOD, or the Established Onset Date for your disability. This is the date that the Social Security Administration recognizes as the day that your disability began. Your EOD may differ from the date that you personally recognize as the onset of your disability. If you are applying for SSI, this date will be set for your filing date or after your filing date (since you cannot receive benefits dating from before this date). For SSD, this date can be set for before or after your filing date.
For SSD applications only, there is an additional factor: a five-month waiting period. Whether your EOD falls before or after your filing date, you will have five months’ benefits automatically removed from your disability back pay period. For example, if your EOD were 19 months before your filing date, you would receive 14 months of retroactive payments prior to the date of your SSD application.
The fourth and final factor is the month of entitlement. This is the first month that your regular monthly SSI or SSD payments would have begun. Disability back payments start at the month of entitlement and will end the moth prior to the adjunction of your claim at which point your regular monthly payments will begin.