Answer: Social Security provides disability insurance to
insured workers who are totally disabled. Benefits are
not payable for short-term or partial disability. You must be
unable to do any work to be considered disabled & your disability
must be expected to result in death or last for at least
one year.
Alternative public and private disability insurance programs
may offer disability benefits for injuries or illnesses over a
truncated time period, or for partial disability.
Should someone meet the criteria for both Social Security
and other disability benefit programs, that person should be aware
of a few facts: First of all, the law states that disability
payments from private insurance plans don't affect your Social
Security disability benefits. Second, if you receive both Social
Security disability benefits & Veterans Administration benefits,
your Social Security benefit won't be reduced.
Workers' compensation & other public disability
benefits however, may reduce your Social Security benefits.
Because workers'
compensation is a paid job-related injury or illness;
It may be paid by a federal or state workers' compensation agency,
an employer or an insurance company on behalf of an employer.
Other public disability payments that may affect your Social
Security benefits are those paid by a federal, state or local
government for disabling medical conditions that are not
job-related.
If you receive workers' compensation or other public disability
benefits and Social Security disability benefits, generally the
total amount cannot exceed 80 percent of your average current
earnings before you became disabled. You may want to contact your
private or state disability insurance program for more information
about how Social Security could affect those benefits.