Hello Larry,

My son is 21 and just applied for Disability benefits. He became disabled at age 18. I am his mother and I too am disabled and have been receiving benefits for over 12 years now. My questions is will he receive benefits off of my record or just SSI. I currently receive $1693 a month. How much do you believe he would receive if going off of my record? Would he receive ssi and ssdi?

Hi. Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits can only be paid to people who have worked and paid into Social Security long enough to be insured for benefits. So, unless your son has worked in jobs that were covered by Social Security, he won't be eligible for SSDI benefits.

However, assuming that you receive SSDI benefits then your son could potentially be eligible for disabled adult child (DAC) benefits based on your record. DAC benefits can amount to as much as 50% of a disabled parent's primary insurance amount (PIA), but the family maximum benefit (FMB) can sometimes limit the benefit amount payable to a disabled child from a parent's record to as little as zero. Based on your apparent SSDI benefit rate, though, I would guess that your son would be eligible for something relatively close to 50% of your benefit rate if his claim is approved.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a needs based benefit administered by Social Security. If your son is approved for SSI benefits he could potentially be paid up to the maximum monthly SSI rate, which in 2022 is $841. But, if your son qualifies for either SSDI or DAC benefits, those benefits would offset his SSI benefit rate roughly dollar for dollar. So, unless your son is insured for SSDI benefits based on his own earnings history, then the most that he could expect to receive is the higher of his SSI rate or 50% of your full SSDI rate.

Best, Jerry