Dubuque Iowa disability attorney explains payment requirements for Social Security disability insurance benefits
One question Dubuque and other Iowa Social Security disability applicants ask is “How much do I have to pay in to the system before I am eligible for disability benefits?”
The Social Security disability program for workers is like an insurance policy. To qualify for benefits, you must have:
- Paid Social Security taxes over a sufficiently long period to be “fully insured;” and
- Paid into the program recently enough to have “disability insured status.”
In other words, you must have paid Social Security taxes in order to be “insured,” just like you would have to pay the premiums for a private disability insurance policy. If you stop paying Social Security taxes because you have stopped working, your insured status will eventually lapse, just like it would if you stopped paying premiums on a private insurance policy.
Quarters of coverage
To be insured, you must have a minimum number of “quarters of coverage” abbreviated QC by the Social Security Administration. The Social Security Administration specifies a minimum amount that a worker must earn for a single QC. The minimum amount goes up every year.
If you have sufficient earnings in one calendar quarter, you can earn QCs for the entire year, up to a total of four QCs. To determine how many QCs you have for a year, your total annual earnings are compared to the minimum earnings for a quarter of coverage.
Fully insured
To be fully insured, you must have one QC for every calendar year after the year in which you turned 21, up to the calendar year before becoming disabled, though more than 40 QCs are never required.
Disability insured status
If you are over 31 years old, you must have 20 quarters of coverage out of the 40 calendar quarters before you become disabled. This is referred to as the 20/40 rule. Significant work in five years out of the last 10 years usually satisfies this requirement.
To receive any Social Security disability benefits, you will have to prove that you were disabled before your “date last insured.” For a claimant with a steady work record, insured status will lapse about five years after stopping work.
A reduced quarter of coverage requirement applies if you become disabled before age 31. A younger claimant must have earned QCs in one-half the calendar quarters beginning with the quarter after the quarter in which he or she attained age 21 and ending with the quarter in which he or she became disabled. If the number of elapsing calendar quarters is an odd number, the next lower even number is used. A minimum of 6 QCs is required.
If you become disabled before age 24, an alternative rule applies. You must simply have 6 QCs in the 12-quarter period ending with the quarter in which disability began. Under the alternative rule, there is no requirement that the QCs be earned after attaining age 21.
As a rule, if you have “disability insured status,” you are also “fully insured.” But there are circumstances in which this is not so. To evaluate a denial based on insured status, your disability attorney will need to study your earnings record.
If you are not eligible for Social Security disability insurance benefits because you are not insured, you may qualify for Supplemental Security Income.
Our Iowa disability attorneys can help you navigate these complex regulations
One of the ways we help Dubuque and other Iowa Social Security disability claimants is by digging deep into the Social Security regulations like those above to uncover the best way to present your claim.
If you want our assistance with your claim, give us a brief description of your situation using the form to the right. Or contact us at:
Law Offices of Thad J. Murphy
Dubuque Iowa Social Security disability lawyers
E-mail us
Phone: 888-256-7413 (toll free)
Fax: 563-583-9103
1635 Associates Drive, Suite 102
(next door to the Dubuque Social Security office)
Dubuque, Iowa 52002
Or by appointment at:
617 Brady Street
Davenport, Iowa 52803
