SSI and Social Security Disability Insurance: What's the Difference?
This comes up a lot during the initial consultation with my clients.
Social Security Disability Insurance, also called "DIB" is a disability insurance benefit. You earn this benefit through wage withholdings paid to the government. Those withholdings are like insurance premiums. If you pay enough premiums over the required length of time, then you are "insured" for disability. Your benefit is then calculated based on your prior earnings.
Supplemental Security Income, or "SSI" is a disbility benefit, but it is also based on financial need. A SSI applicant must prove disability, but also must meet income and resource thresholds.
Resources refers to things you own. If you have too much "stuff," you are not qualified. I think the reasoning is that SSI is a benefit of last resort, and if you really need to, you can sell off your assets to subsist. Some things are excluded when counting resources, like a house, household goods and a car used to go to doctor appointments.
Income is just that, income. Depending upon your circumstances, Social Security will offset your income against the set SSI benefit rate. There are a lot of rules and policies that apply to how this offset is calculated. Also, it's handled at your local Branch Office.
Many of my clients will have "concurrent" claims, which means that they are appealing denials of SSI and Disability Insurance benefit applications.
Here's some helpful links to the SSA website:
