Age 18 - Redetermination is usually done

Hi Lisa,

Going to the SSA government web site, this is what I found. And I do think it makes sense because before Laney's eligibility was based in part on your family's income and information. You may well find that as now a legal "family of one" that she will receive more.

Public Law 104-193 extended the requirement of redetermination of SSI eligibility to all SSI child recipients who reach age 18, with such redetermination being based on the adult eligibility criteria. This law also added the requirement that a CDR be performed:

At least once every 3 years for SSI recipients under age 18 who are eligible by reason of an impairment which is likely to improve, and


- I would therefore continue to contact the local SSA office by phone and also in writing to ask what you need to do for a redetermination in her own right as an adult.

- The monthly Cash Payment right now for 2008 is $637/month. And based on the following criteria she should qualify for the full amount:

(1) Disability Criteria - She continues to have DS and that is pretty much a given in that the expectation is there that she will be unable to achieve working the level of Substantial Gainful Activity of $940/month gross.

(2) Resource Criteria - She has met this for the Medicaid, too, so as long as resources stay under $2,000, this should not be an issue.

(3) Fair Share of Family Expenses - This is not really a criteria for approval, but rather for whether she will get the full monthly amount. It can be reduced by one-third if it is found she is paying too little or too much of a family's basic expenses. Basically look at your budget and divide by 4 for:

- Rent or Mortgage
- Utilities of Gas/Electric/Oil and Water/Sewer only
- Food
- Money for personal care, clothes and recreation - Usually o.k. to have about $80-$100 left over for this.

In figuring "Fair Share"

- Your mortgage or rent is a given.
- Your utilities to keep as low as possible to have some flexibility, choose receipts from lowest months and maybe one a bit higher and average them out.
- Food is the area that may be used of offset housing if it is high. Or if housing is very low, then simply food shop and keep receipts that show a trend of high amount for four of you over say a month.
- Leftover amount of $80 to $100 for Clothes, Personal Items and Recreation

Even getting one-third less than $637 is still considerable as there is no income-averaging while she is a full-time student, but once schooling ends then there would be based upon what she is earning.

I hope this helps.

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WARNING FOR ANY FAMILY THAT DOES HAVE A DISABLED ADULT CHILD (DAC) WHO IS ABLE TO WORK ----- SSDI is a lot different then SSI!!!

Families in our area are just starting to be told at about two years of working and paying into Social Security that the young adults are paying in enough to be switched over the Social Security Disability Insurance - SSDI and its rules. Along with this comes Medicare for health coverage at some point in time.

1- It is happening fast to these young adults as most are earning now over $9/hour as there is a living wage campaign in our college town.

2- There was NEVER any mention of this fact by MR Case Managers or Post High teachers because most folks are not working. But there needs to be for two main reasons:

***First of all, one parent has already been told that if one earns over SGA - $940/month gross after varius "Trial Work" periods end under SSDI, she may not just lose her SSDI cash payment, but her eligibiity for any benefits because "she no longer would meet the definition of disabiity."

***Second of all, in looking at the rules for a Disabled Adult Child (DAC) to be able to collect SSDI based upon a parent's work record at retirement (usual case(, the DAC must never have earned above SGA during their work history.

1- Now this could be an awfully long time for some over a lifetime of working is parents are say in their 40s. And, it is not fair to limit one's potential, but right now that seems to be the case to protect access to health care coverage and future possible larger cash benefit.

2- And, there does seem to be a 7-year forgiveness period, but I do not know much about that yet.

This is very important information that needs to be presented to families of those adult able to work in as simple a way as possible. In our case, my husband will retire in 4.5 years so it does make sense to be sure that E never does earn more than the $940 a month. You can either do this by having one find a job at lower hourly pay if one is able to work a lot, or limiting the hours one works at a higher rate. For her it means that she will qualify at a bit over $1,100 a month with SSDI and then could earn up to say around $900.

I thought this crap did not start until retirement, but it is obvious that it can come about two years out at a certain payin level which I need to get the information on. I will share more as I learn- oh what fun.