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Do You Have To Reimburse SSI For Benefits Paid During The Five Month Waiting Period For SSDI?

I was approved for both ssi and ssdi do u pay reimbursement for the ssi u draw during ur 5 month waiting period from ssdi back pay took 8 months to recive ssdi

Hi. No. What you're describing is referred to by Social Security as an SSI Offset Computation. SSI stands for Supplemental Security Income, which is a needs based program administered by Social Security. Since SSI is needs based, it's only payable for months in which a person's income is low enough to qualify for SSI. And, SSDI benefits count toward the income limit for SSI. So, if a person qualifies for both SSI and SSDI benefits for the same month(s), their SSI benefit amount is reduced roughly dollar for dollar by the amount of their SSDI benefit.

When a person applies for both SSI and Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits, it often takes several month or even years for their claim(s) to be approved. If the person is eventually approved for benefits from both programs, Social Security pays benefits retroactively for any months that benefits were due. Typically, the person's SSI back pay is paid first, and those payments are made without regard to any SSDI benefits to which the person is also entitled. As a result, when the person's SSDI back pay is subsequently paid, Social Security withholds and reimburses SSI for the amount that they paid that wasn't due because of the person's SSDI benefits.

However, there is no waiting period for SSI benefits, whereas there is a 5-month waiting period for SSDI benefits. So, SSI is only due reimbursement from a person's SSDI back pay for months that both benefits were payable.

For example, let's say Bob becomes disabled on December 25 2020 and he applies for SSI and SSDI benefits in January 2021. Bob's claim for both benefits is approved in December 2021. Bob is first paid the SSI back pay he is due for all 12 months of 2021, however, the first month that Bob is entitled to SSDI benefits is June 2021. His 5 month waiting period was January 2021 through May 2021. Furthermore, since SSDI benefits are paid a month behind, if Bob's SSDI benefits had been paid timely he would have received his first payment in July 2021.

In our example above, let's assume Bob's SSDI benefit is high enough to make him ineligible for any further SSI benefits. In that case, when Social Security calculates Bob's SSDI back pay they would need to withhold the full amount of SSI benefits that were paid for months after June 2021, and reimburse the SSI program for that amount. However, since Bob wasn't eligible to be paid SSDI benefits for months prior to July 2021, Social Security would not need to reimburse the SSI program for SSI benefits paid for months prior to July 2021.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Aug 14 2022 - 11:58am
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