A $1,500 insurance coverage payout should not usually be a trigger for fear. However for one Social Safety Incapacity Insurance coverage recipient, the test raised a critical query: Might it put their advantages in danger?
The person, who shared their story on Reddit, defined that they hit a deer with their automotive. As a result of the automobile additionally serves as a backup dwelling, repairing the injury was pressing. Their insurance coverage firm provided a payout, however they weren’t certain whether or not accepting it might have an effect on their month-to-month incapacity funds.
Do not Miss:
Commenters have been fast to reassure the poster that SSDI works in a different way than they may assume. Insurance coverage settlements, inheritances, and presents are thought-about unearned revenue, and SSDI shouldn’t be lowered primarily based on these forms of funds.
“Relating to SSDI, insurance coverage funds do not matter to the SSA — you might get a $1M insurance coverage payout they usually would not blink,” one commenter defined. “Why? Insurance coverage payouts are unearned revenue. They don’t seem to be elements of SSDI eligibility or of SSDI profit quantities.”
The Social Safety Administration backs this up. SSDI is an earned profit, primarily based in your work historical past and the payroll taxes you paid earlier than turning into disabled. The one revenue that issues for SSDI is earned revenue — wages from a job or self-employment.
For 2025, incomes greater than $1,620 a month from work typically places somebody above the “substantial gainful exercise” restrict, which might make them ineligible. However cash from an insurance coverage firm does not fall into that class.
Trending: From Chipotle to Crimson Bull, High Manufacturers Are Already Constructing With Fashionable Mill’s Tree-Free Wooden Different — This is How You Can Make investments Too
The confusion typically comes from mixing up SSDI with Supplemental Safety Earnings. Each are run by the SSA, however they comply with very totally different guidelines.
-
SSDI is insurance coverage for individuals who labored and paid into Social Safety earlier than turning into disabled. Unearned revenue does not scale back advantages.
-
SSI is a needs-based program. Each earned and unearned revenue, together with insurance coverage payouts or money presents, can scale back and even eradicate month-to-month funds.
“If you’re optimistic it’s SSDI, and NOT SSI, you may have completely nothing to fret about,” one other commenter clarified.
Whereas SSDI advantages aren’t affected by insurance coverage settlements, there are nonetheless particulars value contemplating:
