I'm 54 have been on ssdi for12 yrs I suffer from several debilitating terminal diseases I'm on medicade and recurve a whopping $779 a month my question is is this the best I can get or am entitled to

Hi. My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, so I don't know if you could qualify for any needs based benefits in your community. Since your Social Security disability (SSDI) benefit rate is relatively low, you may want to try searching for Social Service agencies in your area. Also, Social Security does administer a federal needs based benefit called Supplemental Security Income (SSI), so if you haven't applied for that program you may want to contact Social Security about doing so.

As for your SSDI benefit rate, that's based on a variable number of your highest earnings years that were subject to Social Security taxes. If you became disabled at age 42 then the number of your earnings years used was probably about 16 years. The higher your earnings averaged in those years, the higher your SSDI rate should be. I have no way of knowing if the amount you're receiving is correct, but almost all SSDI rates are calculated automatically by Social Security's computer system and I would estimate that roughly 99% of those calculations are accurate.

Best, Jerry