My niece was born with spina bifada, my sister has had her on ssdi all her life. My niece is 40 now and has been drawing the same amount all these years but now since her mother has been deemed disabled and drawing a check, my nieces benefits have been lowered. In case it is relevant my niece has not lived in the same household as her mother for 25 years at least. My question is why her social security disability has decreased. Why would my nieces benefits decrease just because her mother is now on disability?

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your niece's condition.

I can't say for sure, but if your niece never did any significant work then she's probably not drawing Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits. Instead, it sounds like she's probably receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which are needs based payments administered by Social Security (https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/).

Regardless though, your niece's SSI benefits wouldn't normally be reduced simply because her mother started drawing SSDI, unless your niece then became eligible for Social Security disabled adult child's benefits from her mother's record. Since SSI is needs based, any other income that a recipient receives can cause their SSI payment rate to be reduced accordingly.

Best, Jerry