An early decision on Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits is simply any determination made by the Social Security Administration (SSA) regarding eligibility that comes sooner than the typical timeframe for the majority of applicants. Most SSD applicants wait months and even as much as two years for a determination to be made on their eligibility for benefits. Any decision that comes within the first four to six months is generally considered to be an early decision, though in most instances, “early decisions” refers to a favorable determination, or one in which the applicant is found eligible for SSD benefits.

There are two primary circumstances under which an SSD early decision is made. The first is when you have a condition that falls under the compassionate allowances (CAL) program of the SSA. The CAL program is designed to expedite approval for disability benefits for applicants that clearly suffer from a terminal illness or inherently disabling condition.

SSD applications approved under the CAL program must still contain the appropriate medical documentation for supporting your claim for disability. Thorough documentation reduces the likelihood of delays caused by the SSA investigating your condition further.

The second instance in which an early determination is typically made is when an applicant has a well documented and extremely thorough case file. Having the right medical documentation to fully meet the SSA’s bluebook definition of a disabling condition makes the determination of eligibility much simpler for the SSA.

The bluebook is the SSA’s manual describing the details of known disabling conditions. It outlines which conditions qualify for SSD benefits and the kind of medical documentation and other proof required for meeting the SSA’s guidelines with any specific diagnosis.

Of course, there are other factors that can play into how long a disability determination may take. These include how long it takes for your doctor(s) to respond to any requests from the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office for additional information and whether the DDS finds that an independent evaluation of your medical condition is required to make a final decision on your eligibility for benefits.

To increase your chances of receiving an early decision on SSD, you should ensure you put together as complete of an application as you possibly can. This makes it less likely the SSA will need to request more information from your doctor or doctors and can also reduce the chances they’ll need to send you for an independent evaluation of your condition. Consulting a Social Security disability lawyer that is familiar with the process for proving a disability can also help shorten your wait for disability benefits.

Your spouse’s income can affect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits but will have no impact on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). SSI is based on income or financial need, and because it’s a need-based program, benefit amounts are calculated taking your current finances into account, causing your spouse's income to impact your financial need.

Because Social Security disability (SSD) benefits are calculated using a factored equation and include work credits in the analysis of eligibility, getting married can have an impact on the amount of monthly benefits you’ll receive in the future or even whether or not you will remain eligible to receive benefits.

The biggest influence of marriage on SSD benefits comes from how it changes your life circumstances. When you were approved for SSD benefits, your life circumstances were taken into account by the Social Security Administration (SSA). This includes not only your financial status and earnings or income, but also your living situation and other factors. For this reason, marriage can change your eligibility, dependent upon how different your new life circumstances will be as opposed to those under which you initially qualified for SSD benefits.

Understanding how marriage may affect your SSD benefits requires you to understand the basics of how SSD eligibility is determined. While medical status and the presence of a clearly diagnosed and defined, severely limiting disability is necessary to qualify for SSD benefits, so are sufficient work credits.

Work credits are essentially a contribution to the Social Security fund through payroll deduction. For this reason, anyone who qualifies for SSD benefits must qualify under work credits as either:

• a disabled worker who previously contributed to the Social Security fund, or
• as a dependent of a worker who has over the course of their employment history contributed to that fund.

In other words, when you initially qualified for SSD benefits, you did so because either you, your spouse at the time, or your parent met the work credit requirements for you to receive disability benefits. The manner in which marriage may affect your SSD benefits is dependent upon how you qualified for work credits with your initial SSD application.

Here’s how marriage may affect your benefits dependent upon how your life circumstances will change:

You Qualified Under Your Own Work Credits

If you are a disabled worker who paid into the SSD fund through payroll deductions prior to becoming disabled, then your marriage will not affect your eligibility for benefit payments or the amount of benefits you receive on a monthly basis. This is true regardless of your future spouse’s employment status or earnings.

You Qualified with Work Credits as a Dependent

There are instances in which dependents (widows/widowers, adult children, spouses and even ex-spouses) of disabled workers qualify to receive benefit payments through the SSD system. If you are the beneficiary of a disabled worker’s SSD, then you may lose your own benefits after getting married.

Whether or not you remain eligible for benefits depends on how you’re related to the individual under whose work credits you initially qualified for benefits. Following you will find additional details explaining how marriage will affect your continued eligibility for benefits based on your relationship with the worker.

• Disabled Adult Child
  

  If you are a disabled adult child of a worker (whether disabled or currently working), then you may receive disability benefits under their work credits with the SSD system. If you get married, you will no longer qualify for benefits. There is one potential exception to this rule. Under some circumstances, two disabled adult children who currently receive SSD benefits under their parents’ work credits can sometimes continue to both receive benefits even after getting married.

• Ex-Spouse of a Living or Deceased Worker
  

  If you are currently receiving SSD benefits under your ex-wife or husband’s work credits, then getting remarried will end your eligibility for benefits. The same is true if you initially qualified under the work credits of an ex-spouse who is deceased.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) periodically reviews the eligibility status of anyone receiving Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. During a continuing disability review (CDR), the SSA looks at two things in order to determine if you are still eligible for SSD benefits: work activity and improvement in the condition that qualified you for SSD in the first place.

The first thing to realize with Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits and retirement is that “full retirement age” is not always 65. In fact, 65 is only considered the age of retirement for those born in 1937 or earlier, so chances are that you will be among those who hit full retirement age at a later date. In any event, you will still want to know how your SSD benefits will be affected by hitting what is considered retirement age by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for someone in your age demographic.

When is Full Retirement Age for Me?

Over the years, the SSA has periodically adjusted the age of full retirement. There are several designations of full retirement age according to the SSA and each is defined by your date of birth. The breakdown is as follows:

For the majority of current SSD beneficiaries, the age of full retirement is 67, which means you may have at least a couple more years before you need to be concerned with how hitting retirement age will affect your benefits; however, it’s good to understand the process in advance so there are no surprises when you do reach 67.

What Happens with My SSD When I Hit Full Retirement Age?

There are two major changes that take affect when you reach full retirement age. The first is that your benefits will no longer be paid through SSD. Instead, you will transition to the SSA’s “Old Age” or retirement program instead. Your benefits will not be interrupted with this transition and the benefit payment will be processed as usual. It will simply come in from a different Social Security fund rather than SSD, but you won’t even notice the difference.

The second change that comes with reaching full retirement age is that your benefits are no longer subject earning limits that were in place with your SSD benefits. In other words, you can increase your earnings from a part time job or other income source without losing dollars in your monthly benefit check.

Will Full Retirement Age Change My Benefit Amount?

Standard full retirement benefits from the SSA are calculated on what a worker contributed to the Social Security system over the course of their employment. Disability benefits are as well, so the amount of your monthly benefit payment is not affected by the transition from SSD to retirement benefits.

What’s Required for Me to Make the Transition?

SSD beneficiaries don’t have to do anything when they hit the age of full retirement. The SSA automatically transitions your benefits to the retirement fund without requiring you to complete new applications or other forms.

What about SSD and Early Retirement?

The SSA does currently allow people to apply for and begin receiving early retirement benefits at the age of 62; however, if you are disabled and have been receiving SSD benefits, then hitting early retirement age is not applicable for you. Instead, you would simply continue to receive SSD benefits until you reach the age of full retirement, at which time you would be transitioned from SSD to retirement benefits automatically by the SSA.