SOCIAL SECURITY WORK CREDITS
What Are Social Security Work Credits?
Social Security runs two disability benefits programs for people who can’t work because of their health and one of them, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), requires recipients to have a significant work history.
That means having enough Social Security work credits, but how these are measured and how other factors, like age, can affect the calculations can be confusing.
The Detroit disability lawyers at Levine Benjamin Law Firm can tell you more about work credits and help you figure out if you’re eligible for SSDI.
We know you’re going through a difficult time. You’re worried about your health and finances, and you don’t want to get tripped up by the government’s confusing rules about disability benefits.
Let the Levine Benjamin team answer any questions you have about Social Security work credits or any part of the Social Security Disability application process.
We’ve helped over 100,000 people secure financial relief they need to lead fuller lives.
Levine Benjamin helps people in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and across America.
We’ll help you explore all your options for claiming disability benefits and returning financial stability to your life.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
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How Do Work Credits Affect Social Security Disability Insurance Eligibility?
When you’re applying for disability benefits, you need to show that your health problems have stopped you from working and they’ll continue to interfere with your ability to work for a long time, 12 months or more.
This isn’t the only requirement for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. If you want to receive monthly SSDI payments, you also need to show that you’ve earned money and paid a significant amount into Social Security over the years.
Like other kinds of insurance, you have coverage when you’ve paid for it.
How does Social Security decide you’ve worked enough and paid enough in Social Security taxes? It has a system for awarding work credits based on your earnings in a given year.
- As of 2026, you earn one Social Security Disability work credit for every $1,890 in earnings.
- You can earn a maximum of four work credits per year, meaning that up to $7,560 in earnings can be counted.
The exact dollar amounts change over time.
You won’t get a larger benefit because you have more than the required work credits, but you do qualify for full coverage once you reach those levels.
You also can’t “make up” for years where you didn’t work by working and earning more in another year, but if you have enough total credits over a period of years, you’ll still qualify.
If you’re unsure how many credits you’ve earned and whether you’ll qualify for SSDI, talk to our Michigan disability lawyers.
Two Types of Work Tests for Disability Benefits in Michigan, Ohio and Nationally
There are two specific ways SSDI applicants and their work histories get evaluated by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The first is a duration of work test. This looks at the total number of work credits you have accumulated over your years of working.
Claimants are split into two different age groups with different benchmarks to meet:
- Anyone applying for benefits at age 28 or younger needs to have six credits, or 1.5 years of work.
- After that, an applicant needs to have at least as many credits as the number of years since they turned 22.
If your health problems started when you were 30 years old, you would need to have at least eight credits to qualify for SSDI. If they started at 40, you would need at least 18 credits.
Having a certain total of Social Security Disability work credits is good, but you also need to pass a recent work test that evaluates how many credits you earned in the time right before the onset of your disability.
SSDI applicants get split into three age groups for this evaluation:
- Anyone under age 24 needs six work credits in the three years before disability.
- Applicants age 24 to 31 need credits for working half the time between age 21 and the start of their disability.
- Anyone age 31 and older needs to have at least 20 credits in the last 10 years before disability began.
As an example, if someone developed a disability at age 29, they would need at least 16 credits, indicating that they had worked for four of the past eight years since turning 21.
An older person would need to have worked five of the previous 10 years.
If you need help figuring out how many Social Security Disability work credits you’ve earned or have other questions about your SSDI eligibility, reach out to our disability lawyers.
What if I Don’t Have Enough Work Credits for SSDI?
If you haven’t worked for long, you mostly did part-time or gig work, or you haven’t worked in many years, you may find you don’t have enough Social Security work credits to qualify for SSDI.
You’re not out of options. A Detroit disability attorney can help you figure out the next steps.
You could:
Check your SSI eligibility: Social Security Disability Insurance isn’t the only type of disability benefit. If you can’t qualify for SSDI, you may be able to apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
If you don’t have many other resources available to you, you may qualify for SSI. This is a need-based program, so your work history doesn’t matter.
Look into Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits: If you have experienced work-limiting health problems since a young age, before turning 22, you may be able to qualify for DAC benefits.
If one of your parents is receiving Social Security retirement or disability benefits, or they have passed away, you may be able to collect benefits based on their work record.
Double-check your earnings record: You may have worked enough to qualify for SSDI, but it’s possible that your wages were not properly reported or a previous employer made some other kind of error.
Our Michigan disability lawyers can help you review your records and make sure it’s not just a paperwork problem interfering with your ability to get SSDI benefits.
Do I Need Help from a Detroit Disability Lawyer?
Applying for disability benefits on your own is never easy. Many people find this process complicated and unforgiving.
This is especially stressful if you’re worried you didn’t work enough to meet the qualifications for SSDI benefits.
Work with a Detroit disability attorney from the very beginning, so you’ll always be clear on what you need.
Our lawyers can help you:
- Figure out which kind of disability benefit you qualify for
- Identify important evidence that supports your claim
- Successfully make the argument that you can’t work any job, not just your most recent one
- Review your earnings records for any errors that could affect your SSDI eligibility
- Appeal if Social Security denies your application for benefits
The team at Levine Benjamin can do the work of applying and appealing for you while you focus on your health and your family.
We help people Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Toledo, Elkhart, and across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana get disability benefits that could make a huge difference in your life.