How Does the SSDI Waiting Period Work?

If you recently became disabled, as a result of a serious accident or a medical diagnosis, you should be learning more about Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and taking steps as quickly as possible to gather all necessary documents and evidence to submit an application. In reading about SSDI benefits or speaking to friends and family members, you may have heard that there is a waiting period associated with SSDI benefits, and you might be wondering if the waiting period applies to you and, if so, how it works.

The most important thing to know up front is that there is no waiting period for applying for benefits, so it is critical to begin working with a national disability benefits lawyer as soon as possible. In the meantime, we can tell you more about the formal and informal waiting periods that you should know about.

No Required Waiting Period Before You Submit Your Application 

As we mentioned above, the Social Security Administration (SSA) does not have a formal waiting period that you must comply with before submitting your application for SSDI benefits. You can submit your application as soon as you have all the necessary materials and details. In fact, it is very important to submit your application as early as possible because processing delays ultimately can affect when you receive your first payment.

While there is a formal waiting period (which we will explain below) from the date of your disability to receiving your first payment, processing times have recently exceeded the waiting period — 7 months on average, according to the SSA. What that means is that applicants who are approved for SSDI benefits are actually having to wait longer than the formal waiting period to receive their first SSDI payment. So, the sooner you send in your complete application, the sooner you will be able to receive your benefits.

Five-Month Waiting Period for SSDI Benefits 

While there is no waiting period to apply for SSDI benefits following a medical diagnosis, there is, as we indicated above, a formal waiting period from the date of disability to the time that you can receive your first SSDI payment. The SSA has a five-month waiting period, which means successful SSDI applicants can begin receiving payments in the sixth month following their date of disability. Yet as we also noted above, the processing times for SSDI applications are quite long, so the waiting period can end up taking more than five months, even if you apply immediately. Accordingly, it is critical to know that you should not wait five months to apply for benefits — this is not an application waiting period.

There are some circumstances in which a person may be able to get benefits sooner through the SSA’s Compassionate Allowances program. If you have been diagnosed with a particularly serious condition identified in the Compassionate Allowances program, you may be able to receive benefits much sooner.

Contact 

To begin working on your SSDI application or to find out about your eligibility for the Compassionate Allowances program, you should get in touch with an experienced national SSDI benefits attorney at the Law Offices of Stephen Barszcz as soon as possible. We are here to assist you with all aspects of your SSDI case.

Sources:

ssa.gov/disability

ssa.gov/securitystat/disability-processing-time

ssa.gov/compassionateallowances/