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Title II is referred to as the Disability Insurance Benefits or DIB program. The Old Age, Survivor and Disability Insurance program provides benefits based on retirement, disability and blindness (Social Security Disability Insurance) to those who have worked and paid into the Social Security insurance system and to certain of their dependents and survivors.
Title II benefits are not needs based and have no income or asset requirements. Contrary to popular belief, Title II is not a welfare program. It is your disability insurance if you are unable to work. Taxpayers pay insurance premiums to earned “insured status” for disability coverage. Insured status is earned by working in covered work and earning sufficient “quarters of coverage.” “Covered work” is work on which the social security taxes have been paid. Workers become insured by earning quarters of coverage. For example, in 2004, workers were required to earn $900 in covered work to earn one quarter of coverage.
Title II benefits depends on how much time you worked and what how much money you made in “covered work.” To qualify for benefits, an individual must meet the SSA’s disability or blindness, must be “insured,” and have earned a certain number of quarters of coverage in proximity to the date of onset (usually, twenty out of the last forty calendar quarters, unless you are a younger person). There are special rules for younger workers to acquire insured status for benefits. |
