How Much Do I Have to Pay Into Social Security Before I’m Eligible for Texas Disability Benefits?
One of the questions that Austin disability claimants ask most is, “How much do I have to pay into Social Security before I am eligible for Texas disability benefits?” The short answer is that to qualify for Social Security disability, you must have paid Social Security taxes:
- Over a sufficiently long period of time that you are “fully insured” by the program; and
- Recently enough that you have “disability insured status.”
Social Security disability is, in some respects, like a private insurance policy. You must pay Social Security taxes to be “insured” by the program—just like the premium you would have to pay for a private disability insurance policy. If you stop paying Social Security taxes, your coverage will eventually expire.
Quarters of Coverage
To determine whether you are covered or not, the Social Security Administration relies on the idea of “quarters of coverage,” the basic unit for determining whether a worker is insured under the Social Security program.
In order to be eligible to claim Social Security disability benefits, you must have accumulated a certain number of quarters of coverage. If you earn at least a specified amount of money in a quarter, it will count as a quarter of coverage. This amount increases every year, and in 2010, the amount is $1,120. For each quarter that you earn at least this much, you will earn one quarter of coverage. If your total earnings in one quarter are high enough, you can earn more than one quarter of coverage, up to four quarters of coverage per year. You do not have to actually work in each quarter in a year to earn four quarters of coverage. However, no matter how much you earn, you can never earn more than four quarters of coverage per year.
Fully Insured
To be “fully insured,” a Texas disability claimant must have one quarter of coverage for each calendar year after the year in which he turned 21, up to the calendar year before he became disabled. The Social Security Administration will never require you to have more than 40 quarters of coverage.
Disability Insured Status
If a claimant is over 31 years old, he must have earned at least 20 credits within the last ten years (40 quarters). This is referred to as the 20/40 rule. A person who earned all four credits for each of the least five years will be insured for five years after he stops working. After five years, his insured status will lapse.
If a claimant is under 31 years old, a different requirement applies.
Requirements for Younger Claimants
A claimant who becomes disabled before age 31 must have earned quarters of coverage for half of the calendar quarters beginning with the quarter after the quarter in which he turned 21 and ending with the quarter in which he became disabled.
The SSA will never require less than six quarters, so for a claimant in his 20s who has worked less than 24 quarters to be considered “fully insured,” he will need to have earned quarters of coverage at a rate higher than the normal rate of one quarter per year.
A claimant who became disabled when he was younger than 24 will be required to have six quarters of coverage out of the 12 quarters before the start of his disability. There is no requirement for him to have earned these quarters of coverage after turning 21.
Help Is Available From Knowledgeable Texas Social Security Attorneys
These regulations may seem confusing, and to evaluate a denial based on uninsured status, a Texas disability attorney will probably need to study a record of your earnings. We can help you navigate complex Social Security regulations like these, so if you need help from an experienced Austin disability attorney, please fill out the form to the right or contact us at:
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