THe difference between SSI and SSDI is always worth a review! SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) is an earned benefit that focuses on physical and mental impairments that are severe enough to prevent people from engaging in their normal occupations or any other work. Their impairment must be expected to last for at least 12 months, or to end in death. It come with Medicare overage after 24 month from the date of initial disability determination.
SSI (Supplemental Insurance Income) meanwhile pays benefits to low-income people who are 65 or older. It pays dults who are disabled based on the same definition used by SSDI, or who are blind It pays children who are disabled and blind. The program is only for people who have very limited income and assets. It comes with immedicate Medicaid.
SSDI benefits can be paid to blind or disabled workers, and like Social Security retirement benefits, to their children, to their widows or widowers, and to adults who haven’t worked but have been disabled since childhood.
SSI, meanwhile, pays benefits to low-income people who are 65 or older; to adults who are disabled (based on the same definition used by SSDI) or blind; and to children who are disabled and blind. The program is only for people who have very limited income and assets.
Another key difference is how the two programs are financed. SSDI is funded by the Social Security taxes paid by workers, employers and self-employed people. SSI, on the other hand, is financed by general revenues that the Treasury Department collects to run the U.S. government.
Why the differences? The two programs were established at different times and under different circumstances.
SSDI dates to 1960, when Social Security’s rules were amended to permit payment of benefits to disabled workers of an