How Does SSA Determine your Monthly Disability Benefit (SSDI)?

 

 

Your monthly Social Security disability benefit is around the same amount as your retirement benefit. You can quickly find out this amount by creating a MySSA account by following this link. You can also call SSA’s customer service hotline at 1-800-772-1213 and request your monthly disability amount.

The Social Security disability benefit amount is based on your total lifetime income. SSA will calculate your benefit amount by adding together 90% of earnings under $816, 32% of earnings between $816 and $4,917, and 15% of earnings greater than $4,917. Remember, earnings beyond $132,900 are not subject to social security tax. SSA will essentially standardize your lifetime earnings to account of inflation, and create an index to find the years with the highest earnings, and then apply the above formula.

 

For a rough estimation, a person 50 years old on 1/1/2019 would receive the following monthly benefit, based on yearly gross earnings:

Annual Earnings SSDI Monthly Benefit
$40,000 $1,315
$50,000 $1,510
$60,000 $1,705
$70,000 $1,900
$80,000 $2,095
$90,000 $2,289
$100,000 $2,399
$110,000 $2,490
$120,000 $2,581