{
  "id": "R43370",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R43370",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 442532,
      "date": "2014-01-24",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T20:42:46.960423",
      "title": "Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI): Becoming Insured, Calculating Benefit Payments, and the Effect of Dropout Year Provisions",
      "summary": "Eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits are based on a worker\u2019s insured status, and payment levels are associated with the individual\u2019s career earnings under covered employment. Monthly payments are calculated using a formula that takes into account the period of employment, a worker\u2019s average earnings over that period, and the application of \u201cdropout years.\u201d\nTo be insured for SSDI benefits, a claimant must have worked a minimum amount of time in covered employment. First, a worker must be \u201cfully insured,\u201d which requires one quarter of coverage for each calendar year after the age of 21, with a minimum of six quarters and a maximum of 40 quarters. In 2014, each quarter of coverage requires $1,200 in earnings. Second, a recency of work test requires 20 quarters of coverage in the 40 quarters preceding the onset of a disability; that is generally five years of work in the last 10, although fewer quarters are required for younger workers.\nIn calculating the SSDI benefit level, up to five years of a worker\u2019s lowest years of earnings are eliminated or \u201cdropped\u201d to minimize the effect of lower years of earnings on monthly payments. An eligible worker who becomes disabled has one year of earnings dropped (via the disability dropout year provision) for every five years of earnings, known as the one-for-five rule. A separate childcare dropout year (CDY) provision also disregards from benefit calculations up to two years in which a beneficiary received no income during periods when he or she was caring for a young child. The number of CDYs applied to a benefit calculation may be offset by the number of disability dropout years applied and vice versa. The CDY provision largely benefits a small subset of SSDI recipients with lower career earnings.\nThis report provides (1) an overview of the SSDI program and how workers become insured for SSDI benefits, (2) an explanation of how benefit payments are calculated, and (3) a description of how the dropout year provisions affect the calculation of disability benefit payments. The report concludes with a brief analysis of the earnings of disabled workers that have been credited with CDYs.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": true,
      "formats": [
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "encoding": "utf-8",
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R43370",
          "sha1": "0b319bfecf8becfdd2a40eb2ce725f64b4bf21af",
          "filename": "files/20140124_R43370_0b319bfecf8becfdd2a40eb2ce725f64b4bf21af.html",
          "images": null
        },
        {
          "format": "PDF",
          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R43370",
          "sha1": "692aa72e9520d778f0edbdb61b7877de4eb1587f",
          "filename": "files/20140124_R43370_692aa72e9520d778f0edbdb61b7877de4eb1587f.pdf",
          "images": null
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "IBCList",
          "id": 2912,
          "name": "Disability Rights and Benefits"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "topics": []
}