Natalia Jofre: Hi, I’m Natalia Jofre, the Social Security Section Director here at Hill & Ponton.
Shelly Mark: I’m Shelly Mark. I’m the Senior Social Security Attorney.
Natalia Jofre: So, we’ve been talking about date last insured in our last few segments, and we explained that this is basically like social security’s expiration date, and that you need to prove that you’re disabled prior to that date in order to qualify for regular social security disability benefits. We told you that if you can’t do that then you can always try and apply for income-based SSI, which is also a disability benefit. So we were talking about those differences.
Natalia Jofre: We now want to tell you, basically, how do you earn earnings quarters. Okay because your earnings quarters are what’s going to determine your date last insured and what it is. The more you earn, the more quarters you get. The more recently you earn, or have those earnings, the longer your date last insured will be extended.
Shelly Mark: Right.
Natalia Jofre: So, right. Every year that you work basically puts off your date last insured. Date last insured really doesn’t come into play until you stop working.
Shelly Mark: Right.
Natalia Jofre: Because that’s when then, it’s like Shelly said before-
Shelly Mark: It becomes kind of like a … it’s like catching you.
Natalia Jofre: Yeah, yeah.
Shelly Mark: It’s coming. So, almost, if you’re working at a pretty normal level, almost every year that you don’t work you’re reducing that five years by a year.
Natalia Jofre: Exactly. Yeah. It’s like Shelly said before, it’s like the clock starts ticking the minute you stop working. It’s not just that you stop working, it’s that you stop paying into social security tax.
Shelly Mark: True.
Natalia Jofre: So to earn quarters, you have to pay into social security tax. So why do I say that so emphatically? People will sometimes talk about working off the books, or work for a relative, or they owe three years worth of taxes. That’s not gonna count, okay? It has to be that you’ve actually paid into social security tax and not just … because there’s some differentiation. I think sometimes you can just pay your Medicare tax or something. We see that a lot with self-business owners. So we wanted to throw a couple of numbers at you. Last year in order to earn one-quarter of coverage you had to earn $1,260. Then this year it’s $1,300.
Shelly Mark: Okay. That’s per quarter, correct?
Natalia Jofre: That’s per quarter. The maximum amount of quarters you can earn per year are four. Okay? So, I wanna give you that information and explain to you that that doesn’t mean that you have to work in all four quarters. Okay?
Shelly Mark: Right.
Natalia Jofre: If this year’s amount is $1,300 that means that you have to earn $5,200 this year to get four quarters.
Shelly Mark: Right.
Natalia Jofre: Well, what if you earned $5,200, which is very doable, just in this first quarter?
Shelly Mark: Sure.
Natalia Jofre: Okay. Just in the first three months of the year. You now have enough quarters you’d get your four quarters for the whole year.
Shelly Mark: Yeah. That’s great.
Natalia Jofre: So it doesn’t mean you have to work every month. We tell people that because sometimes people that have worked, and paid into social security tax part-time for years-
Shelly Mark: Right, right.
Natalia Jofre: -they’ll still be fully insured for a regular disability benefit. Now, the higher your earnings, the higher your benefit will be.
Shelly Mark: True.
Natalia Jofre: Okay. So, that is true, but if you’re just looking at being able to qualify technically for benefits for this year, 2017, if you’ve made $5,200 in the whole year you’re gonna get four quarters of coverage.
Shelly Mark: That’s great.
Natalia Jofre: Okay.
Shelly Mark: I think that this is an area that’s confusing for a lot of people, so I think that that’s a really good explanation. Then also everyone asks me, what is my disability amount gonna be? It’s like the magic question. Then it’s always the same, as Natalia said, it’s going to depend on what your earnings were. Everyone’s different. It’s not like SSI where there’s just one amount and everybody gets the same thing. It depends on your earnings, and the taxes that you paid in, and then it’s a computation that I’m not aware of exactly.
Natalia Jofre: It’s mysterious. It’s very mysterious.
Shelly Mark: Social security figures that part out.
Natalia Jofre: Highly guarded security. I mean, I’m sure there’s some brainiac mathematicians out there that know, but what I will tell you, is that there’s no percentage or correlation in terms of, people think unemployment, oh, they have to give me 80% or long-term disability. They pay me 60% of what my earnings used to be. Social security is not that way. Yes, we know that the higher your earnings were, the higher your benefit will be. If you pay the maximum amount a year then you can get the maximum social security benefit, which is in the ballpark of $3,000. I have seen that happen once, and I’ve been doing this 26 years.
Shelly Mark: Yeah. That’s…
Natalia Jofre: I just aged myself.
Shelly Mark: That’s…
Natalia Jofre: I was a toddler when I started here.
Shelly Mark: That is a very good point because people assume that they’re going to receive more of a benefit. I’ve had many, many clients that were making over $100,000 a year leading up to when they became disabled. And again, I’ve seen into the mid 2,000’s, maybe 2,800 max, as a benefit.
Natalia Jofre: Yeah, yeah. Anyone in the ballpark of 2,000 we consider to be a high benefit. It’s really, really not the norm. If you wanna find out what your benefit would be, request an earnings record from social security.
Shelly Mark: Exactly.
Natalia Jofre: Okay. Everyone can get that for free, and it will tell you what your benefit would be if you became disabled, what your benefit would be if you retired at age 62, what it would be at your normal retirement age. It will also tell you what your date last insured is as of right now, whether you qualify for benefits, whether you have enough earnings quarters, and all that good stuff.
Shelly Mark: I think, Natalia, I think you can do that online now. Right?
Natalia Jofre: Yes.
Shelly Mark: You can make your account online and then get a PDF of that.
Natalia Jofre: Yes. That’s what preferred.
Shelly Mark: Yes. Definitely.
Natalia Jofre: Okay. Great. Well, thanks for joining us. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to visit our website or call our office.
Shelly Mark: Thank you.
