It’s the most-viewed video on our YouTube channel and one of the most common questions I hear every day as a Social Security Disability Lawyer in Memphis, TN: how much Social Security Disability back pay will you receive?
People joke that attorneys always say, “Well, it depends” – and it does. But fortunately for you, it depends on certain factors controlled by law. I explain more in this video:
Transcript: How Much Social Security Disability Back Pay Will You Receive?
If you’re medically unable to work and you’re entitled to Social Security Insurance or Social Security Disability benefits, how much back pay are you entitled to?
Hi I’m Darrell Castle. I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee. And that’s a pretty easy question to answer, really. Your disability is based on when you became disabled. So let’s say that your doctor told you that as of today, you are medically unable to work. And you went down and got your disability application in today. And let’s say that it took one year for benefits to start because:
1) the first time took maybe six months, and
2) they denied you (which they do about 70% of the time)
Then after that, you filed an appeal. And you had a good lawyer to do all this, so after one year you were granted disability benefits.
So you would have one year of past-due benefits. This has nothing to do with the ongoing payment, except that’s what it’s based on: One year of past-due (based on the amount that is paid ongoing) – one year of that would be paid to you.
Attorney Fees and SSDI Back-Pay
Then how much of that would you lose in attorney fees if you had an attorney to represent you? Well 25%, not to exceed $6,000. So let’s say for simplicity’s sake that your benefit is for $10,000 – your past-due benefit – so how much would your attorney get?
Obviously $2,500, right? But let’s say that your benefits were $30,000 (which is pretty common). $30,000 – what is 25% on $30,000?
$7,500 – but that’s not what your attorney would get. He would get $6,000, because he’s limited to $6,000 no matter how much your past-due benefits are.
And I’ll tell you something, folks, this is a good lesson for you: 75% of something is a whole lot better than 100% of nothing. So your past-due benefits start on the date of your disability.
I’m Darrell Castle – I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee. If you are medically unable to work and you want to apply for Social Security Disability benefits, I’d love to talk with you about that. Folks remember, if you’ve been denied, you only have 60 days to file an appeal.