How to Make SSI Disability Give You Back Pay

The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides supplemental security income (SSI) assistance to disabled individuals who do not have a sufficient work history to collect Social Security benefits. After approval for SSI, a back payment is paid to the applicant for each month from the application date to the approval date.

Things You'll Need

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Instructions

• 1

  Review the approval documentation from SSA after SSI is awarded to you. You should receive a multi-page packet that includes the initial application date, award amount and amount of any back payment. Compare the back payment amount, if any, to the application date and any income that you have reported between the application date and now. If the letter reports no back payment, but you believe that you should have received a back payment, go to Step 3.

• 2

  Estimate your SSI back payment amount using SSA's chart of SSI benefit amounts. If no income has been received since the application date, you can calculate the estimated back payment amount by multiplying the number of months in each year by the monthly payment amount, starting with the month of the application date and ending on the month prior to the month that SSI benefits will begin. For example, if an application was submitted on May 1st, 2008 and was approved with benefits starting on November 1st, the estimated amount would be: (7 x $637) + (10 x $674), which is $11,199 for the total estimated back payment.

• 3

  Contact your local Social Security office and/or disability attorney if your estimated SSI back payment amount is not at least approximately the same as the amount on the SSI award letter, or if you believe that you should have received a back payment, but did not. If your disability attorney and local Social Security office are not able to provide an adequate explanation for this, you have 60 days from the date on the award letter to appeal the back pay amount.

• 4

  File an appeal on the basis of the back payment amount on your SSI benefits. You should have your disability attorney, if you have one, involved in this process. The appeal letter must clearly state that the overall decision itself (approving SSI) is not being appealed, just the back payment amount, or else the entire SSI case could be reviewed once again and possibly rejected.