Understanding Disability Back Pay: Why the Date Matters

0:25 Understanding that my glasses off for this one. This is gonna be interesting. I'm gonna get I'm probably gonna confuse you a bit. Stay with me, Okay, probably gonna confuse you with So stay with me, all right, kind of let's do the math here. When you're looking at what your back pay is, sometimes people ask their representatives what am I gonna get if I'm approved? And this is the first thing that you're probably find. With a lot of representatives, they don't want to tell you. And most times people get really angry because they're like, how come you won't tell me? Because there are way too many unknowns, and so they'll say, well, what's my best case scenario.

1:03 The problem is that the best case scenario they don't want to do that to you because what ends up happening is that if you hold on to that, that's what you're going to fixate on. But we're not going to worry about that right now. Let's go and talk about the calculations. That's really what you want to know about.

1:16 So first thing you need to know is the day you needed to be. The first thing that controls all this is what date did your disability begin? Not the date you were approved the date your disability begins, what we call your onset data disability. So if you say so, if they ask you you're applying today, when did your condition prevent you from being able to work eight hours a day five days away? When when did it prevent you from being able to perform substantial game for activity?

1:45 So if you say, well, I'm applying today, but my disability began in June January one, twenty fourteen, that's the date that if they determine you approve you on that date. That's the date of disability. That is the onset data disability. That date is crucial because that is the one that is used in reference to how everything else gets paid. Okay, so always keep it matter. This is the date that controls a lot of times because that's the date that controls in terms of how you get paid. Now, there's a variety of programs out that you'll see for disability benefits.

2:19 There's usually disabled widows, disabled widows, but the two biggest one that most people look at is Supplemental Security Income and SSD. So, so security disability, the way you get paid is different from both. Let's start with the SSI. I want you to listen carefully. For SSI, the furthest you can go back is the date of the application, unless the date you were found disabled occurred after your application date. Let me say it again, Supplemental Security Income.

2:51 The furthest the earliest you can get disability benefits if you are approved for SSI only is the date of your application, unless you were found to be disabled after the date you apply. I'm gonna give you two examples. Example number one. Let's assume you applied for SSI on January one, twenty fifteen. You told the government you became disabled January one, twenty fourteen, So you get approved on December twenty nine, twenty sixteen. Awesome, and they find that you were disabled. Okay, they find that you were disabled on January one, twenty fourteen. You're happy about that. Remember what I said, you applied on January one, twenty fifteen.

3:31 So what does that mean? Even though they found you disabled a year before your application, The earliest you can get is your application. What does that mean? You don't get that year before the application, You only get the day of the application forward. Now, let's try another example. Same thing. You applied on January twenty fifteen, you said you were disabled January one, twenty fourteen, you approved December twenty nine, twenty sixteen. But they found you disabled not January one, twenty fourteen, but June one, twenty sixteen. So what does that mean. Well, you're thinking, well, at least i'll get the application. No, you will not, because they found you disabled after your application. You will only get

4:13 benefits starting on June one, twenty sixteen, you know, taking consideration any of the calculations and stuff like that. Okay, that's SSI. Let's talk about SSD. SSD. The earliest you can go back is up to a year before the application again, unless you are found disabled after your application date.

4:31 Now here's something that you need to understand with SSD. There's a waiting period that comes in there. It's five month waiting period. So just think of this. Any date they find you disabled tackle on five months, and that's the date when your benefits start. However, it gets a little tricky if you're dealing with an an older onset date that's a greater than a year before your application.

4:52 Let's break it down a couple of times. I'm gonna give you three examples. Follow with me. So you applied January one, twenty fifteen, you said you became disabled on January one, twenty thirteen. You get approved, and they find that you were disabled on January one, twenty thirteen. And now you're saying yourself, well, attorney reads, we add the five months. That means I should be eligible for benefits for January till January, February, March, April, May, so June one, twenty thirteen. No, what did I say? The most you can get is up to a year before. So that means you applied on January one, twenty fifteen, they found you disabled January one, twenty thirteen. You'll only go back to January one, what two thousand fourteen, that's a year before.

5:36 That's the first example. Second example, same thing. Let's say they found you disabled January one. You applied January one, twenty fifteen, said you were disabled January one, twenty thirteen. They approved you, but they said your disability began June June one, twenty sixteen. Now you're like, okay, so does that mean I get a benefit starting on June one? No, five months later. That means your benefits will start November first, twenty sixteen. Now go back one more example. I know you're like, God, I'm just confusing. Follow me along, rewind this, and lit's do it again. You applied. Third example, you applied January one, twenty fifteen. You indicated you became disabled on January one, twenty fourteen, so they approve you and

6:22 they give you that date. You're like hot dog boom, You're thinking, I'm in there. Well, guess what what did I say? Five months after that? So you wouldn't get June January one, twenty fourteen. Five months later you would get June one, twenty fourteen. I know this is all weird, and I tell people when people get this and they're like, I'm just so confused. I said, listen, this usually all works at something. But here's another thing you need to keep in mind. There may be other factors that come into play. Are you getting workers' comp benefits, are you getting other retirement benefits, Are there any assets or resources?

6:54 Are you getting veterans benefits? And all those things will affect your back pay. And so if you wonder why social why attorneys or representatives don't like going into the discussion of what you're going to get, is because when you're going through the disability process. Their focus is on getting you on disability. That's all they care about. They want to they want to get you approved and get you as much money as you possibly can. But when you start doing the nuts and bolts, the problem is is that they won't know that until they actually get you approved, get you an on set date, see if there's any other applications that they can get you back as far as they can, and then once they have a better picture, then they can kind of give you

7:30 an indication. So and the nice thing is Social Security will usually give you documentation about all this as it's playing out. Back pay is a beast focus on getting disability first, and then once you get through, then a lot of this stuff will work it up out of or to him. Tomorrow, as we talk about pain medications and your disability case. Intact posts to the STA