Many people attack the Social Security Disability Insurance benefits program because they claim too many people get benefits or take advantage of the program because they don’t want to work.
A Boston disability lawyer knows this is untrue and those who seek benefits do so because they cannot have jobs due to illness. They need money to support themselves and their families. When benefits are cut or access to benefits is further restricted, these disabled people pay the price and often cannot put food on the table or provide for their needs.
What critics of the disability benefits system may not realize is that it is not only the disabled who would suffer when benefits are limited. Many children also receive income through Social Security Disability.
The Children Receiving Social Security Benefits
According to the Motley Fool, around 4.7 million children under the age of 18 were receiving some form of Social Security benefits as of 2013.
A total of 1.3 million children receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration receive their benefit through Supplemental Security Income (SSI) because they are blind or disabled. These disability benefits are available if the children are part of a family with limited resources. The average monthly benefit in those cases where a child is disabled and receiving SSI is $631. The benefits frequently go to providing necessary medical care and assistance to disabled children, or to helping to provide for a family where a parent must stay home and be a caretaker to a disabled child.
Another 3.4 million children who receive benefits from Social Security get their benefits because they have a parent who is covered and who has passed away, who is disabled or who has claimed retiree benefits.
Of the kids receiving Social Security because of their parents, by far the largest number is kids whose parents are disabled. A total of nearly 1.8 million kids fall into this category. These children receive an average monthly benefit of just $333.
By contrast, kids who receive Social Security because their parent is deceased receive an average monthly benefit of $810. Children whose parents are disabled are able to receive 50 percent of their parents’ Primary Insurance Amount. This is the same level of benefits to which children of retired workers are entitled, but often, those whose parents have retired worked longer and have a larger Primary Insurance Amount.
While these amounts of money are not huge sums, they can help to keep a child and a family out of poverty when a breadwinner parent cannot work or when a child has special medical needs.
Attacking the Social Security Disability program and trying to limit benefits or make it harder to qualify could result in these millions of children no longer being able to live in a home where their basic needs can be met. Politicians pressing for the reduction of benefits to the disabled need to consider these children when they make choices about the laws that they pass related to Social Security.
If you need help getting Social Security benefits in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
More Blog Entries
Williams v. Colvin: Determining the Date of Disability for the Purpose of SSDI, August 10, 2014, Boston Disability Lawyers Blog