Some important terms stand out in Social Security
disability regulations. Here is what
they mean.
Alleged Onset Date (AOD). This is the date the claimant alleges to have
first become disabled. If it becomes the
Established Onset Date (EOD), meaning that the Social Security Administration
agrees that the claimant did indeed become disabled on that date, benefits may
be paid back to that date. So the
AOD/EOD affects how many months of back pay or past due benefits the claimant
is entitled to receive.
Waiting Period. The waiting period for all Title 2 (regular
disability) claims is 5 full calendar months.
This is really an elimination period.
5 months of benefits will be subtracted from the Established Onset
Date. For example, if you are found to
have become disabled on March 15th, your waiting period will include
the months of April –August and your first benefit payment eligibility will be
for the month of September. This does
not necessarily mean you would have to wait 5 months to get a benefit. It
depends on when hour established onset date was.
Duration Requirement. Social Security regulations require a
claimant to be disabled for at least 12 consecutive months in order to receive
disability benefits. And the 12 months
must be from the same impairment(s). For
example, if a person is disabled for 5 months because of a heart attack, then
becomes disabled again for 7 months because of back surgery, the two
impairments cannot be combined to satisfy the 12 month duration
requirement. A claimant does not
necessarily have to wait 12 months before filing an application for disability
benefits, however. If he/she expects to
be disabled for a period of 12 consecutive months by the same condition or
combination of conditions, the application can be filed immediately. The requirement is that the claimant provides
medical documentation that he/she can reasonably be expected to be disabled for
at least 12 consecutive months.
Disability expected to last less than 12 consecutive months are not
covered by Social Security. Benefits may
be awarded before the 12 month period expires.
The duration requirement is intended to eliminate benefits for
impairments that are expected to last less than 12 months.
Date Last Insured (DLI). This is the date the claimant’s Social Security
disability insurance expires. Yes,
disability insurance does expire if you stop working and stop paying FICA
taxes. If your DLI is 12/31/17, for
instance, you must file a disability claim before 12/31/17 or prove that you
became disabled prior to 12/31/17.
Otherwise, you lose the right to file a new claim after 12/31/17. If you are receiving disability benefits from
Social Security, this date has nothing to do with when your payments will stop,
when your case will be reviewed again, etc.
It simply means that there was a point in time beyond which you could
not file a new disability claim. That
date is called The Date Last insured (DLI).
If you are receiving disability benefits, you obviously filed a claim
prior to the DLI, so the date means nothing to you at this point.
