If you currently receive Social Security Disability benefits or have filed an SSD application, getting married could cause a change in your monthly amount. Whether or not that happens depends mainly upon the type of disability benefits you are awarded.
Here, the Mountain West Disability team explains how marriage may or may not affect those who receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and why Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients are likely to see their disability benefits reduced or even eliminated after getting married.
How Marriage Affects SSDI Benefits
If you’re disabled and receive SSDI benefits based upon your own work record, your marital status has no bearing on your monthly amount. That won’t change after you get married, regardless of how much your spouse earns.
However, if you’ve qualified for SSDI – also known as Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) – under someone else’s earnings record, this may not be the case. You might lose your disability benefits if any of the following are true:
- You receive SSDI benefits under the earnings record of your ex-spouse and you remarry.
- You receive benefits because you’re the widow or surviving divorced spouse of a SSD recipient, and you get married before the age of 60 (or, if you’re disabled, before your 50th birthday).
- You’re an adult disabled child who gets married when receiving benefits under the work record of an eligible parent. But, if your spouse is disabled and also collects disability benefits, yours may not be terminated.
How Marriage Affects SSI Benefits
The change in your marital status in itself won’t have an impact on your eligibility for Supplemental Security Income. However, if your new spouse earns an income, that could result in the reduction or elimination of your SSI benefits.
The Social Security Administration places a strict limit on income amounts for SSI recipients, and when you get married, a portion of your spouse’s earnings will be counted as yours. As a result of this – which is referred to as deeming spousal income – you may no longer be eligible for benefits. Or, the amount you receive may be significantly reduced.
What if your spouse also receives SSI benefits? You may both still be eligible, but the amount the two of you receive will be calculated at the rate for couples. The maximum monthly SSI payment changes each year, but in 2020, the amount you and your spouse receive will be no more than $1,175.
Get Answers to Your Social Security Disability Questions
Want more details on how getting married will affect your SSDI or SSI claim? Do you need help applying for Social Security Disability benefits? The experienced professional advocates at Mountain West Disability, based in Murray, Utah, can provide you with the information and assistance you need.
For more information on the services we offer and how our team can help prevent you from unknowingly compromising your Social Security Disability benefits, contact us today.
