If I Move To A State Where There Is A Lower Cost Of Living, Would My SSD Benefits Decrease?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Social Security disability is a national disability program, therefore movement from state to state would have no affect upon the amount of your Social Security disability benefits. In other words, if you move to a state where there is a lower cost of living your Social Security disability benefits will remain the same. Social Security disability benefits are simply not based upon the cost of living in states, cities, or localities.

The key to this question is whether or not your "overall monthly money will decrease if you move to another state. Some disability beneficiaries may have a decrease in their over all benefits due to a move to another state. What do we mean by this? If your state offers a supplement to your SSD benefits and you move to a state that offers no monthly supplement, you may feel like your disability benefits have decreased, though in actuality your overall amount will have gone down due to loss of the supplement.

If you are planning a move to another state and you are receiving a monthly state supplemental benefit, be sure to plan your budget without the state supplemental benefits. Social Security bases the amount of your monthly disability benefits on your earnings prior to becoming disabled. Your monthly SSD amount can only be increased by cost of living increases given by Social Security or by additional work activity (that has the effect of increasing your paid-in contributions and, thus, raises the amount you are eligible to receive.

The actual amount of your SSD benefits are never decreased, however you may receive a lower monthly disability benefit amount if you are repaying an overpayment (sometimes SSD beneficiaries have to repay disability benefits that they were not entitled to receive--most often due to work activity) or if your SSD benefits have been garnished for some reason.

Note: SSD benefits can only be garnished for child support both current and past, alimony, student loans, IRS liens, or any other unpaid loan from the Federal government. SSD benefits cannot be garnished for delinquent credit obligations (credit cards, car loans, home loans, etc).

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SSD and SSI are Federal Programs

The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here:

Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state

Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials