What Are the Social Security Disability Requirements For Personal Assets?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Many disability applicants become confused as to the non-disability requirements of Social Security Disability. This is because the social security administration operates two separate disability programs. One is SSD, or social security disability; the other is SSI, also known as supplemental security income. It is also because, of the two disability programs, the need-based SSI disability program's requirements are best known to the public.

That is to say, many people know that SSI has income and resource limits that may make an applicant ineligible to receive disability benefits. Personal assets would be considered when making a resource determination for this program and might include vehicles, land, cash, trust funds, stocks, rental houses, antiques, or even jewelry.

Any asset that can readily be turned into cash is considered in an SSI resource determination. Naturally, if an individual is over the resource limit, they are not eligible for this need-based program.

So what do personal assets have to do with the requirements of the Social Security disability program? Absolutely nothing.

Social Security disability has non-disability requirements, but they are not about income (other than wages) or assets (resources). Disability applicants must be insured to meet the non-disability requirements of the Social Security disability program. Insured status is earned through work activity. Each year a person can earn four work credits or quarters of coverage toward insured status for Social Security disability.

Being insured for Social Security disability is a two-pronged process that includes being "fully insured" and "disability insured". To be fully insured, an individual must have one quarter of coverage for every year after the year of their twenty-first birthday up to the year they became disabled.

If the disability applicant meets the fully insured requirements of the Social Security disability program, they still have to meet the disability insured requirement. To be disability insured, the disability applicant must have worked five out of the ten years prior to becoming disabled. Of course, special rules are in place for younger individuals under the age of thirty-one who have not worked that long.

What does all of this mean? That there is no need for an individual to be worried about filing for Social Security disability if they have assets, because there are no resource limits for the Social Security disability program. In other words, SSD is not at all concerned with how much you have in assets. SSD does not even look at assets. SSI, on the other hand, has an asset limit of $2000.

Additional information:

What are the Assets that count for SSI Disability?

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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