2024
Benets For
Children With
Disabilities
SSA.gov
What’s inside
Introduction 1
Supplemental Security Income
payments for children with
disabilities 1
Social Security Disability
Insurance benefits for adults with
disabilities since childhood 7
Applying for SSI payments or
SSDI benefits and how you
can help 8
Employment support
programs for young people
with disabilities 10
Medicaid and Medicare 12
Children’s Health
Insurance Program 13
Other health care services 13
Contacting Us 14
Introduction
This booklet is for parents, caregivers,
and representatives of children younger
than age 18 who have disabilities
that may make them eligible for
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
payments. It is also for adults with
disabilities since childhood (prior to
age 22) who might be entitled to Social
Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
benets. We call this SSDI benet a
“child’s” benet because it’s paid on a
parent’s Social Security earnings record.
This booklet will help you decide if you,
your child, or a child you know may be
eligible for SSI or SSDI.
Supplemental Security Income
payments for children with
disabilities
SSI provides monthly payments
to people with limited income and
resources who are 65 or older, or blind,
or have a disability. Children younger
than age 18 are eligible if they have
a medical condition or combination of
conditions that meets Social Security’s
denition of disability. Their income and
resources must fall within the eligibility
limits. The amount of the SSI payment
differs from state to state because
some states add to the SSI payment.
Your local Social Security ofce can tell
you more about your state’s total SSI
payment.
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SSI rules about income
and resources
We consider a child’s income and
resources when deciding if they are
eligible for SSI. We also consider the
income and resources of family members
living in the child’s household. These
rules apply if your child lives at home.
They also apply if your child is away at
school but returns home from time to
time and is subject to your control.
Your child’s income and resources, or the
income and resources of family members
living in the child’s household, may
exceed the amount allowed. If so, we
will deny the child’s application for SSI
payments.
We limit the monthly SSI payment to $30
when children are in a medical facility
and health insurance pays for their care.
SSI rules about disability
Your child must meet all the following
disability requirements to be considered
medically eligible for SSI:
• The child, if not blind, must not be
working or earning more than $1,550
a month in 2024. The child, if blind,
must not be working or earning more
than $2,590. This amount usually
changes every year.
• The child must have a medical
condition or a combination of
conditions, that results in “marked and
severe functional limitations.” This
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means that the condition(s) must very
seriously limit the child’s activities.
• The child’s condition(s) must have been
disabling or be expected to be disabling
for at least 12 months; or the condition(s)
must be expected to result in death.
Providing information about your
child’s condition
When you apply for SSI payments for
your child based on a disability, we will
ask you for detailed information about
the child’s medical condition. We will
ask about how it affects the child’s
ability to perform daily activities. We will
also ask you to give permission to the
doctors, teachers, therapists, and other
professionals who have information
about your child’s condition to send the
information to us.
Please provide any of your child’s
medical or school records that you have.
This will help speed up the decision-
making process.
What happens next?
We send all the information you give us
to the Disability Determination Services
(DDS) ofce in your state. Doctors and
other trained staff in that state agency will
review the information. They will request
your child’s medical and school records
and any other information needed to
decide if your child meets our criteria
for disability.
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The state agency may not be able to
make a disability determination using
only the medical information, school
records, and other facts they have. If so,
they may ask you to take your child for a
medical examination or test. We will pay
for the exam or test.
We may make immediate SSI
payments to your child
The state agency may take 6 to 8
months to decide if your child meets our
criteria for disability. For some medical
conditions, however, we make SSI
payments right away, for up to 6 months,
while the state agency decides if your
child meets the criteria for immediate
payment.
Some of the conditions include:
• Total blindness.
• Total deafness.
• Cerebral palsy.
• Down syndrome.
• Muscular dystrophy.
• Severe intellectual disability (child age
4 or older).
• Symptomatic HIV infection.
• Birth weight below 2 pounds, 10
ounces — We evaluate low birth
weight in infants from birth to
attainment of age 1 and failure to
thrive in infants and toddlers from
birth to attainment of age 3. We
use the infant’s birth weight as
documented by an original or certied
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copy of the infant’s birth certicate
or by a medical record signed by
a physician.
Your child may get SSI payments right
away. If the state agency ultimately
decides that your child’s disability is not
severe enough for SSI, you won’t have
to pay back the SSI payments that your
child received.
SSI disability reviews
After your child starts receiving SSI, the
law requires that we review their medical
condition from time to time to verify that
their disability still meets our criteria.
We must do this review at each of the
following times:
• At least every 3 years for children
younger than age 18 whose
conditions are expected to improve or
for which improvement is possible.
• By age 1 for babies who are getting
SSI payments because of their low
birth weight. If we determine their
medical condition isn’t expected to
improve by their 1
st
birthday, we may
schedule the review for a later date.
We may perform a disability review even
if your child’s condition isn’t expected
to improve. When we do a review, you
must present evidence that your child’s
disability still severely limits their daily
activities. You must also demonstrate
that your child has been receiving
treatment that’s considered medically
necessary for their medical condition.
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What happens when your child
turns age 18
In the SSI program, a child becomes an
adult at age 18. We use different medical
and non-medical rules when deciding if
an adult can get SSI disability payments.
For example, we don’t count the income
and resources of family members,
except of a spouse, when deciding
whether an adult meets the nancial
limits for SSI. We count only the adult’s
and spouse’s income and resources. We
also use the disability rules for adults
when deciding whether an adult has a
disability.
• If your child is already receiving SSI
payments, we must review the child’s
medical condition when they turn age
18. We usually do this review during
the 1-year period that begins on your
child’s 18th birthday. We will use the
adult disability rules to decide whether
your 18-year-old is eligible for SSI.
• If your child wasn’t eligible for SSI
before their 18th birthday because
you and your spouse had too much
income or too many resources,
they may become eligible for SSI at
age 18.
For more information, read Supplemental
Security Income (SSI) (Publication
No. 05-11000).
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Social Security Disability
Insurance benets for adults
with disabilities since childhood
The SSDI program pays benets to
adults who have a disability that began
before they became 22-years-old. We
consider this SSDI benet a “child’s”
benet because it is paid on a parent’s
Social Security earnings record.
For an adult with a disability to become
entitled to this “child’s” benet, one of
their parents must:
• Be receiving Social Security
retirement or disability benets.
• Have died and had worked to earn
enough to be eligible for Social
Security benets.
Children who were receiving benets
as a minor child on a parent’s Social
Security record may be eligible to
continue receiving benets on that
parent’s record upon reaching age 18, if
they are determined to have a disability.
We make the disability determination
using the disability rules for adults.
SSDI Disabled Adult Child (DAC)
benets continue as long as they have
a disability. Marriage of the DAC may
affect eligibility for this benet. Your
child doesn’t need to have worked to get
these benets.
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How we determine if your
child over age 18 is entitled to
SSDI benets
If your child is age 18 or older, we will
evaluate their disability in the same
way we would determine disability for
any adult. We send the application
to the DDS in your state that makes
the disability determination for us.
For detailed information about how
we determine disability for adults,
read Disability Benets (Publication
No. 05-10029).
Applying for SSI payments or
SSDI benets and how you
can help
You will need to complete an application
for SSI payments or SSDI benets for
your child and a Child Disability Report.
The report collects information about the
child’s disability and how it affects their
ability to function. You can complete a
Child Disability Report online. Once you
submit it, one of our representatives
will contact you by phone to begin the
application process. You can also call
us toll-free at 1-800-772-1213 to apply
or schedule an appointment. If you are
applying for SSI payments for your child,
you should have their Social Security
number and birth certicate with you. If
you are applying for SSDI benets for
your child based on a parent’s earnings
record, please have:
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• The Social Security number of
the parent receiving retirement or
disability benets, or the deceased
parent on whose record the SSDI
claim is being led.
• The child’s Social Security number
and birth certicate.
You can help us make a determination by
doing the following:
• Tell us as much as you can about
your child’s medical condition(s).
• Give us the dates of visits to doctors
or hospitals, including the patient
account numbers for any doctors
or hospitals. Also include any other
information that will help us get your
child’s medical records.
• Provide us with copies of any medical
reports or information you have in
your possession.
NOTE: You don’t need to request
information from your child’s doctors.
We will contact them directly for reports
or information that we need to make a
decision about your child’s disability.
If your child is younger than age 18 and
applying for SSI, you must provide records
that show your income and resources.
You must also provide information on
the income and resources of your child
and others in the household. We also
will ask you to describe how your child’s
condition affects their ability to perform
daily activities. In addition, we will ask for
the names of teachers and any school
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records, day care providers, and family
members who can provide information
about how your child functions.
In many communities, special
arrangements have been made with
medical providers, social service
agencies, and schools to help us get
the evidence we need to process your
child’s claim. Your cooperation in getting
records and other information, however,
will help us nish our job more quickly.
Employment support
programs for young people
with disabilities
We have many ways to encourage
young people who are receiving SSI
payments or SSDI benets and want to
go to work.
Under SSI:
• When we gure your child’s monthly
SSI payment, we don’t count most
of your child’s income. If your child is
younger than age 22 and is a student
who regularly attends school, we
exclude even more of their earnings
each month. In 2024, students
younger than age 22 may exclude
$2,290 of their monthly earnings,
with an annual limit of $9,230, when
calculating their income for SSI.
These limits may increase each year.
• With a Plan to Achieve Self-Support
(PASS), a child who is age 15 or older
can save some income and resources
to pay for education and other things
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needed to work. We don’t count the
saved income and resources when
we gure the amount of your child’s
payment. Read more about PASS at
www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/wi/
pass.htm.
• Because of a medical condition(s),
your child may need certain items
and services to work, such as a
wheelchair or a personal assistant.
When guring your child’s SSI
payment, we won’t count some or all
the amounts paid for these items and
services in your child’s earnings.
• A child older than age 15 may get
help with rehabilitation and training.
• Medicaid coverage will continue
even if your child’s earnings are
high enough to stop the monthly SSI
payment as long as the earnings are
under a certain amount.
Under SSDI:
• An adult diagnosed with a disability
before age 22 can get the same
help with work expenses explained
above for a child receiving SSI. They
can also get help with rehabilitation
and training.
• Benet payments may continue as
long as your child is not engaging
in substantial work. For 2024, we
consider your child to be doing
substantial work if their monthly
earnings are over $1,550 for non-blind
beneciaries ($2,590 if they are blind).
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You can get more information
about these programs by reading
www.ssa.gov/redbook or by calling us
toll-free at 1-800-772-1213.
Medicaid and Medicare
Medicaid is a health care program
for people with limited income and
resources. In most states, children who
get SSI payments can receive Medicaid
coverage, and in some cases, this
comes automatically with SSI eligibility.
In other states, you must sign up for
it. Some children can get Medicaid
coverage even if they aren’t eligible for
SSI. Check with your state Medicaid
agency or your state or county social
services ofce for more information.
Medicare is a federal health insurance
program for people age 65 or older and
for people who have been getting SSDI
for at least 2 years.
There are 2 exceptions to this rule. Your
DAC can get Medicare sooner if they
have:
• End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent
kidney failure requiring a kidney
transplant or maintenance dialysis).
• Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis).
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Children’s Health
Insurance Program
The Children’s Health Insurance
Program enables states to provide
health insurance to children from
working families with incomes too high
for Medicaid, but too low to afford private
health insurance. The program provides
coverage for prescription drugs, vision,
hearing, and mental health services,
and is available in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia. Your state Medicaid
agency can provide more information
about this program or you can get more
information about coverage for your
children at www.insurekidsnow.gov or
by calling 1-877-543-7669.
Other health care services
When your child gets SSI, we’ll refer you
to places where you can get health care
services for them. These services are
under the Children with Special Health
Care Needs provision of the Social
Security Act. State health agencies
usually manage these programs.
States call these services by many
different names, including Children’s
Special Health Services, Children’s
Medical Services, and Handicapped
Children’s Program. Most programs
provide services through clinics, private
ofces, hospital-based outpatient
and inpatient treatment centers, or
community agencies.
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Even if your child doesn’t get SSI, one of
these programs may be able to help you.
Local health departments, social service
ofces, or hospitals should be able to
help you contact your local Children with
Special Health Care Needs program.
Contacting Us
The most convenient way to do business
with us is to visit www.ssa.gov to
get information and use our online
services. There are several things you
can do online: apply for benets; start
or complete your request for an original
or replacement Social Security card;
get useful information; nd publications;
and get answers to frequently asked
questions.
When you open a personal
my Social Security account, you have
more capabilities. You can review
your Social Security Statement, verify
your earnings, and get estimates of
future benets. You can also print
a benet verication letter, change
your direct deposit information (Social
Security beneciaries only), and get a
replacement SSA-1099/1042S. If you
live outside the United States, visit
www.ssa.gov/foreign to access our
online services.
If you don’t have access to the internet,
we offer many automated services by
telephone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, so you may not need to speak
with a representative.
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If you need to speak with someone, call
us toll-free at 1-800-772-1213 or at our
TTY number, 1-800-325-0778, if you’re
deaf or hard of hearing. A member of
our staff can answer your call from 8
a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.
We provide free interpreter services
upon request. For quicker access to a
representative, try calling early in the
day (between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. local
time) or later in the day. We are less
busy later in the week (Wednesday to
Friday) and later in the month.
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Social Security Administration | Publication No. 05-10026
March 2024 (Recycle prior editions)
Benefits For Children With Disabilities
Produced and published at U.S. taxpayer expense