Will I Get Back Pay?
How Does Social Security Back Pay Work in Michigan and Ohio?
Successfully applying for Social Security Disability benefits can take a long time. Most applicants wait months to be approved, but waiting a year or more isn’t unheard of.
Wait times can stretch on particularly long if you get denied and need to appeal (which most people do). It can take months for a disability hearing to get scheduled.
When you can’t work and need these benefits to pay your bills and support yourself, this waiting period is painful.
The good news is that the Social Security Administration (SSA) acknowledges the difficulty these months or years without benefits can cause. You will receive Social Security back pay when you are finally approved.
A Detroit disability lawyer from Levine Benjamin Law Firm can tell you how back benefits are calculated and when you can expect to receive your benefits.
More importantly, Levine Benjamin can help you win benefits in the first place and ensure that you aren’t being awarded less than you should be.
We’ve helped thousands of people across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana for over six decades.
When you work with us, there’s no attorney fee until you win benefits.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
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How Social Security Back Pay Is Calculated
One of the most important parts of your Social Security Disability benefits application is determining the established onset date, or EOD, of your disability. This is the day Social Security decides you were no longer able to work due to your health problems.
The SSA uses this date to calculate how much you’ll receive in Social Security back pay. You will get your monthly benefits multiplied by however many months you were waiting for approval, minus a built-in waiting period.
Applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits have to contend with a five-month waiting period between the onset of their disability and when benefits start.
So when you’ve been waiting for an answer longer than five months (which is usually the case), your back benefits will date to the point five months after your eligibility for benefits began.
What this means is that if you waited 18 months from your EOD to get approved, you would receive 13 months of benefits in back pay.
If you are applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the rules are a little different. The EOD is not important. Your application date is all that matters.
Let’s say someone applied for SSI on October 20, 2024, and received approval in December 2025. Their Social Security back pay would be calculated starting with November 2024, the first full month after their application was submitted.
Even though your health impairments started earlier, right after your application date is when your benefits will start to accrue.
Every case is different. Your individual circumstances could affect how your back benefits are calculated and what kind of back pay you receive.
Get a skilled disability lawyer who will help you get your application in quickly, so you can maximize your benefits.
How Long Will I Have to Wait for Retroactive Social Security Disability Benefits?
When you receive SSDI back pay, you get it in one lump sum. This should take around 60 days after benefits approval, but it can sometimes take longer.
SSI back pay may not be paid in a single lump sum. The first SSI back payment should arrive soon after approval, but applicants who waited a long time may receive a second or even a third payment with a six-month wait between installments.
Splitting up the back pay into multiple payments prevents recipients from going over any income or resource limits that could jeopardize their ability to continue receiving SSI, which has strict financial requirements to qualify
Only when you get paid your back benefits does your disability lawyer gets paid. The attorney’s fee comes out of the back benefits, so you don’t even need to worry about cutting them a check. There also are limits to how much of your back benefits can go to lawyer’s fee.
You will start receiving your monthly benefits checks after your Social Security Disability application is approved. The lump sum for back benefits does not affect your future benefits going forward.
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How a Social Security Disability Lawyer Protects Your Benefits
One of our experienced Michigan disability lawyers can help you maximize your back benefits and ensure that you don’t miss anything you’re entitled to receive.
One common problem is that the SSA may not agree with you about when your disability started, and therefore when to start tallying your back pay. That affects the size of your check.
When you apply for Social Security Disability benefits, you say when your disability began and you had to stop working. This is your alleged onset date, or AOD.
But Social Security might disagree with your AOD and give you a different date. Even if the difference is just a few months, that can mean losing a chunk of back benefits.
A disability lawyer helps you gather the evidence you need to support your claim that your health problems began affecting you on a specific date.
If you couldn’t work in February, but the SSA says your disability started in July, we will help you push back and make your case.
The Levine Benjamin Law Firm’s goal is to see you getting all the resources you need for a healthier, more stable life.