Launching: Disability Insurance

NJSue
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 23:56:32 +0000

I looked up Social Security disability credits because of the topic of this thread. Basically, a full-time worker earns 4 SS credits per year. I was curious what the qualification for disability credits under SS were for young people and here is what I found.

Before age 24–You may qualify if you have 6 credits earned in the 3-year period ending when your disability starts.
Age 24 to 31–You may qualify if you have credit for working half the time between age 21 and the time you become disabled. For example, if you become disabled at age 27, you would need credit for 3 years of work (12 credits) out of the past 6 years (between ages 21 and 27).

I don’t know if my D has any disability insurance through her employer or not. I’ll ask her. She has major medical and a 401K.

I had a friend who had serious health issues (mental and physical) and never worked full-time after college. Her husband divorced her and she had problems getting SS Disability because she had not accrued enough credits. A full-time work history is important for accessing SS benefits (and sometimes, not that easy to achieve).