Hello Larry and others. I actually have 2 questions. Let me give you some information 1st. I am 40 years old and am receiving Social Security disability and SSI. I only worked part time but worked some every year from 1995 til 2013. I applied for benefits and was denied 3 times and for 3 years. When I was finally approved I received back pay from my deemed date which was 2 years I believe. My 1st question is about this. I have been told and everything I have read says that my children and my husband should be receiving payments and should have received back pay as well. They are not. Social Security has told me that they are not entitled to anything because I did not work enough for them to get them. Not one person that I know of has heard of this. I even have people that think I am lying about my kids not getting a payment. I've been thinking of going to a lawyethid persue this but don't know I should or not. Do you know if this is correct? My next question is this. I was the person that handled all of my moms affairs for the last 8 years of her life and when she passed away I received $20,000 in payment from the estate. I earned the money from 2008-2013 and received the payments right before I was approved but during the back pay period. I reported this money to SSI but it was never added to my lifetime earning report. Should it have been? Sorry if that's confusing and I hope I worded it right for you to understand. Thank you for your time. I do appreciate it.

Hi,

Yes, it sounds like it's probably true that your husband and children aren't eligible to receive any payments on your disability record. The reason is that a special family maximum formula is used to determine how much, if any, family benefits can be paid out on a disabled worker's record (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/dibfamilymax.html). For workers with lower amounts of past earnings this formula frequently yields a payment amount of zero for eligible family members, and would likely be true in your case if your Social Security disability benefit (SSDI) rate is low enough for you to also be eligible for SSI benefits.

You could go ahead and file a claim on your children's behalf in order to make sure that they aren't eligible for any payments. What would likely happen in that event is that they would be approved for technical entitlement on your record, but would be awarded a benefit amount of zero.

Money that you inherited from an estate would not be considered as earned income subject to Social Security taxes, and as a result it would not show up on your earnings history nor be used in the calculation of your benefit rate.

Best, Jerry