PROGRAMS
The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers three distinct programs which must be understood in order to assist an injured worker.
The first program, which most individuals are most familiar with, is SSA's retirement program for workers who are over age 65, with 80% of full retirement available to the age 62 worker. While workers' compensation benefits may produce an offset of an individual's Social Security Disability benefits, there is no reduction in Social Security Retirement benefits due to receipt of workers' compensation benefits. CAVEAT: If an individual is also eligible for Long-Term Disability (LTD) benefits, LTD benefits may be reduced for receipt of early retirement benefits, and an individual on LTD should generally NOT apply for early (age 62) retirement benefits. An individual receives Medicare at age 65 with retirement benefits, but not age 62.
SSA also administers two types of disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income benefits (SSI), which is administered under Title XVI of the Social Security Act. Such benefits are in effect a federal welfare program for aged and disabled individuals, and have a strict need and income and resource test. In California, a needy individual who is receiving no other benefits may receive up to approximately $850.00 of S.S.I. - S.S.I. recipients are immediately eligible to receive medical benefits (stickers) for medical treatment.
The second disability-based program which Social Security administers is administered under Title II of the Social Security Act, and is called Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB). In order for an individual to obtain their Disability Insurance Benefits they must meet the same definition of disability as an S.S.I. recipient, and must have sufficient work to have earned enough quarters of coverage to be considered fully insured by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Generally, an individual must have worked five out of the last ten years before they became disabled at covered employment (employment in which Social Security taxes were taken out of the individual's paycheck) in order to receive Social Security Disability benefits.
CAVEAT: Some individuals (particularly low wage earners) may be entitled to both Social Security Disability and S.S.I. benefits, and the two checks may equal up to approximately $870.00 per month in California. Individuals entitled to DIB (Title II Disability Benefits) are eligible to receive Medicare 29 months after they have been found disabled.
