Applying for and receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits provide some income to disabled workers who are unable to maintain gainful employment, but it does not solve all the problems of those who are unable to work.
Money from Social Security only provides a portion of what a worker received while they were maintaining fulltime work, most of the time this is less than 60 percent of what their working salary was. Imagine trying to survive if you receive a 40 percent pay cut. Obviously those who receive SSDI will still probably face financial difficulty and just because someone is awarded disability benefits it doesn’t mean it will do anything to make someone’s impairments any better. Then there is the added financial responsibility of caring for children, luckily Social Security offers something called auxiliary benefits for those who are awarded SSDI and have minor children.
Social Security understands that a parent who is unable to work and maintain gainful employment due to a disability also has a need to care for their minor children and less than 60 percent of their work income does not go a long way. That is where auxiliary benefits come into play.
When an adult with minor children qualifies for SSDI monthly benefits, auxiliary benefits are calculated for the minor children. The auxiliary benefits correlate to the SSDI recipient’s monthly benefits and equals 50 percent of the SSDI recipient’s monthly benefits no matter how many children the SSDI recipient has.
For example, if the SSDI recipient’s monthly benefit amount is $1,000 the SSDI recipient’s child or children would receive $500 total per month. If the SSDI recipient has one child or has four children only a total of $500 would be paid in auxiliary benefits. To learn more about auxiliary benefits click here.
