( U.S) question,I got a fully favorable decision after 36months of waiting and appeals what does that mean?

If you apply for both SSI/SSDI and are approved for both the SSI would start immediately while the SSDI would have the 5 month wait. So let's say you stop work in January and apply in February and approved in March. Your SSDI onset date is January so those payments start in June. Your SSI onset date is February and they start immediately; you'd get a check in April for Feb/Mar/Apr. To confuse it even more, your SSI amount is effected by your SSDI amount (the more D the less I) so from Feb-June your SSI will be higher than what it will be once SSDI starts (but combined it'll still be more)

All of that works the same even if it takes several months to get approved; the same formula is used you're just retroactively paid via backpay. There are some separate rules for how long yo have to spend all that backpay (9 mo IIRC) is you are on SSI (SSDI has no rules). But cross that bridge later.

Calculating benefits and backpay usually doesn't take 3 months. There can be complications when calculating amounts that can take a while to resolve (usually around work and income issues) but most cases are fairly straight forward.

/r/disability Thread Parent