Q & A
My wife has received Social Security disability for several years because of a progressive illness. Her health recently took a turn for the worse and we were wondering if she might receive a larger amount because of this.
Answer: Best wishes to your wife, but declining health will not change her SSA disability amount because it is based largely on her earnings while still working. SSA disability requirements include both having enough work and meeting a strict medical definition of disability based on inability to work. While details are on the SSA website at www.socialsecurity.gov/pgm/disability.htm, the basics are that a person cannot do the work previously done, cannot perform other work due to his medical condition and must have a disability that has lasted, or is expected to last, at least a full year. Social Security pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial or short-term impairments. Since your wife already met this work-related definition of disability, and because her benefit amount is based on her past work history, becoming more disabled will not change her amount. She did receive an increased amount with the 2014 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).
Social Security administers the different, need-based, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Worsening health will not change the SSI amount either but nonmedical changes might. For example, changes in income, marital status or where a person lives can result in a changed SSI amount.
Source: Howard Kossover, Grand Forks Herald - January 10, 2014
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