How is disability insurance calculated

The difference is the amount of disability insurance you should consider getting. Disability Insurance Needs Calculator. This simple tool estimates the income you would need to maintain your current standard of living should you become disabled and unable to work.

Get started. Keep in mind that doing your own calculation or using a disability insurance calculator are only meant to give you a general idea of how much disability insurance income you would need if you became injured or ill. Learn more. Why is disability insurance important? Finding work in a new occupation with the Own Occupation Rider Jason injured his right hand in an accident and was unable to return to his job as an orthopedic surgeon because he couldn't perform surgery.

Due to his medical training, he was able to return to work as a family medicine physician. Jason was considered totally disabled in his regular occupation as an orthopedic surgeon — even though he earns an income from another occupation as a family medicine physician — because of the own occupation definition of total disability included in his Platinum Advantage policy.

Because of this, he receives the policy's full basic monthly benefit, in addition to the income he receives in his new position. If you are unaffiliated with a distributor, our general product training code is: SIC Cancel Continue to Ameritas. Cancel Continue to the VSP site. Cancel Continue to the EyeMed site. Cancel Continue to RegEd. Cancel Continue to iPipeline. First Name.

Some forms and publications are translated by the department in other languages. For those forms, visit the Online Forms and Publications section. More Information. Note: Your claim start date is the date your disability begins.

What is My Base Period? Review the following to find your base period. Confirm your claim start date.

Your claim begins the date your disability began. Your start date determines your base period. Find your base period. If a claim begins on or after January 1, January, February, or March: The base period is the 12 months ending last September Unlike Supplemental Security Income SSI , which also pays benefits to people who are disabled and unable to work but is based on limited income and resources, SSDI requires that you have worked and paid Social Security taxes for a certain length of time.

This article covers how the monthly benefit is calculated. If you are eligible for SSDI benefits, the amount you receive each month will be based on your average lifetime earnings before your disability began.

This is the only factor that determines your benefit amount, although it may be reduced if you're receiving disability payments from other sources more on this below. In other words, your SSDI benefit amount is not based on how severe your disability is, and unlike SSI, you cannot be denied SSDI because you have too much unearned income or too many resources assets.

Your past earnings must be covered under the Social Security program in order to count towards the amount of SSDI benefits you will receive. If you have received a paycheck that had money withheld for "Social Security taxes" or "FICA," the wages you made at that job are covered earnings and will count toward calculating your benefit amount.

Most wages are covered earnings.