If you are successful in obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits you may think that you are not entitled to any other types of Social Security benefits, but your dependents may be.
Disabled workers who are awarded SSDI benefits are eligible to receive additional benefits for their dependent children if their monthly benefit is high enough and the children meet certain requirements.
To qualify for auxiliary benefits the disabled worker’s children must be under 18 years old, be enrolled in school fulltime, and not married. When a disabled worker is awarded SSDI that worker is entitled to ongoing monthly benefits as well as back pay, which is determined by the established onset date of disability. Auxiliary benefits are also awarded to children on a monthly basis and back pay is owed to the children going back to the disabled worker’s established disability date. One important fact to know about auxiliary benefits is that these benefits are calculated based on how much the disabled worker’s monthly benefits will be. The auxiliary benefit amount is not determined by how many children a disabled worker has and is the same no matter how many dependents the disabled worker has. Children who are legally adopted by the disabled worker and children who do not live with the disabled worker are also eligible for auxiliary benefits.
Here is how the auxiliary benefit amount is determined by the Social Security Administration: Dependents are eligible for up to 50 percent of the benefit amount awarded to the disabled worker. For example, if a disabled worker qualifies for $ 1,000 a month in SSDI benefits, the disabled worker’s child or children would qualify for $500 total per month in auxiliary benefits.
Social Security has set a limit on the entire amount that can be awarded to dependents and will only pay 150 to 180 percent of the disabled worker’s benefit for dependents, no matter how many dependents they have.
For more information visit: http://www.socialsecuritydisability.tv/glossary/auxiliary-benefits
