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How Does a Government Disability Income Insurance Calculator Work?

How a Government Disability Income Insurance Calculator Works

The Social Security Administration (SSA) offers three choices of disability income insurance calculators at their website. These calculators are not linked to your SSA official earnings records, but can be used as rough estimators of disability pension or income insurance benefits you might receive. All calculations are based on the information you enter with the assumption that you have sufficient credits to qualify for benefits if all other conditions are satisfied.

Here is a brief description of the calculators offered by SSA.

Quick Calculator. This calculator gives you a fast, general estimate of potential benefits that may be available to you.
Online Calculator. Input your birth date and earnings history to get a better estimate of your potential benefits.
Detailed Calculator. This feature is available online, but it must be downloaded and installed on your PC. In addition to the standard software, a Mac version is available.

There are two other items you should know. Social Security disability benefits can be affected by what is termed a Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which under some circumstances requires an additional calculation. If you believe you may be affected by this provision, use the detailed calculator, as it has a function to factor in this item, the definition of which you can obtain from the SSA website.

Also, SSA disability income insurance at times allows you to receive benefits for some family members (including your spouse, divorced spouse, children, and/or disabled child). One or more of these family members might qualify to receive up to 50% of your monthly insurance benefits. The online calculator will compute what these disability benefits might be to help you have a better estimated picture.

Refer to your insurance policy contract for specific information regarding your coverage and for actual terms, conditions and exclusions. The above statements are general in nature and may or may not reflect the actual terms of your insurance policy.

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