To determine your SSDI and SSI disability payment, start with which program you qualify for: SSDI is built from your lifetime earnings and averages about $1,630 per month in 2026, with individual checks running from a few hundred dollars up to a $4,152 maximum. SSI is needs-based and starts from a flat federal maximum of $994 per month, which then gets reduced by most other income you receive. The two programs use completely different formulas, so the first real question is which one applies to you.1Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts
Which Program Sets Your Payment
SSDI requires enough work credits. In 2026 you earn one credit for every $1,890 in covered earnings, up to four per year. Most adults need 40 credits total, with 20 of them earned in the 10 years right before the disability began. Workers who become disabled before age 31 can qualify with fewer.2Social Security Administration. Disability Benefits – How Does Someone Become Eligible
SSI has no work-history requirement at all. Instead, it looks at income and resources. Countable resources cannot exceed $2,000 for an individual or $3,000 for a couple. Your home and one vehicle are generally excluded.3Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income SSI Eligibility Requirements – 2025 Edition
Some people qualify for both programs at once — this is called concurrent benefits, and it happens when a low SSDI payment leaves room under the SSI income limits.
How SSDI Payments Are Calculated
SSA doesn’t just average your paychecks. It runs your entire earnings history through a multi-step formula that replaces a higher share of income for lower earners and a smaller share for higher earners.
Step One: Average Indexed Monthly Earnings
Every year of past wages gets adjusted for inflation so old earnings are comparable to current wage levels. SSA then selects your highest-earning years, drops the lowest, and averages them into a single monthly figure called your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings, or AIME.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 415 – Computation of Primary Insurance Amount
Step Two: Apply the Bend Points
Your AIME gets split into three brackets, each multiplied by a different percentage. For a disability beginning in 2026:5Social Security Administration. Benefit Formula Bend Points
- 90% of the first $1,286 of AIME
- 32% of AIME between $1,286 and $7,749
- 15% of any AIME above $7,749
Add the three pieces together and round down to the nearest dime. That total is your Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA — the base monthly SSDI benefit. The dollar thresholds where the percentages change are called bend points, and they shift each year with national wage growth.
The design is progressive. A worker with an AIME of $2,000 keeps a much larger share of pre-disability earnings than one with an AIME of $10,000. Reaching the $4,152 monthly ceiling in 2026 takes a long career at or near the Social Security taxable earnings cap.
How SSI Payments Are Calculated
SSI starts at the top and works down. The 2026 Federal Benefit Rate is $994 per month for an individual and $1,491 for an eligible couple. From there, SSA subtracts your countable income.1Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts
What Counts and What Doesn’t
Not every dollar reduces your check. SSA ignores the first $20 per month of most income (earned or unearned) and the first $65 per month of wages. After those exclusions, your SSI payment drops by $1 for every $2 you earn from work, and by $1 for every $1 you receive from non-work sources like a pension.6Social Security Administration. How Much You Could Get From SSI
Here’s how that plays out. Suppose your only income is a $300 monthly pension. SSA subtracts the $20 general exclusion, leaving $280 in countable unearned income. Your SSI check would be $994 minus $280, or $714. Add $200 in part-time wages: subtract the $65 earned-income exclusion from the $200, halve what’s left, and $67.50 more comes off — bringing the check to about $646.
State Supplements
Many states add a supplement on top of the federal SSI payment. Some add nothing, others add several hundred dollars depending on your living arrangement. The state supplement does not reduce your federal SSI amount; it’s added on top.6Social Security Administration. How Much You Could Get From SSI
What Can Reduce the Check You Actually Receive
The formula output isn’t always what shows up in your account. Several rules can pull the number down.
Workers’ Compensation and Other Public Disability Benefits
If you receive workers’ compensation or certain other public disability benefits along with SSDI, the combined total cannot exceed 80% of your average earnings before disability. SSA reduces your SSDI check to stay under that ceiling. VA disability benefits are specifically excluded from this offset.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 424a – Reduction of Disability Benefits
Earning Above Substantial Gainful Activity
SSA tracks whether your earnings pass the substantial gainful activity threshold, the income level the agency treats as evidence you can work. For 2026, the SGA limit is $1,690 per month for non-blind individuals and $2,830 for people who are blind. Earning above the applicable limit generally ends the disability finding, and benefits stop.8Social Security Administration. Substantial Gainful Activity
SSDI includes a trial work period that lets you test working without immediate consequences. In 2026, any month you earn more than $1,210 counts as a trial work month. You can accumulate up to nine trial work months within a rolling 60-month window before SSA evaluates whether you’re above SGA. During those months, your full benefit continues no matter what you earn.9Social Security Administration. Trial Work Period
SSI has no trial work period. Any earnings immediately flow through the income-reduction formula described above.
Family Members on Your SSDI Record
Family payments cut in two directions. Your SSDI approval can trigger benefits for certain family members — a spouse age 62 or older, a spouse of any age caring for your child under 16, and unmarried children under 18 (or under 19 if still in high school). Each eligible dependent can receive up to 50% of your PIA.10Social Security Administration. POMS RS 00203.025 – Amount of Child’s Benefits
There’s a ceiling, though. The total payable on one worker’s record cannot exceed the family maximum benefit, which SSA calculates with its own formula. In practice the family maximum usually falls between 150% and 180% of the worker’s PIA.11Social Security Administration. Formula for Family Maximum Benefit
If dependents’ benefits would push the household over the cap, each dependent’s share is reduced proportionally. Your own PIA stays whole; the cut comes out of what family members receive.
Annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments
Both SSDI and SSI are adjusted each year for inflation. SSA calculates the cost-of-living adjustment using the CPI-W, comparing third-quarter averages year over year. The 2026 COLA was 2.8%, which raised the SSI federal maximum from $967 to $994 and the average SSDI payment from $1,586 to $1,630.12Social Security Administration. Latest Cost-of-Living Adjustment
The adjustment is automatic. In years with little or no inflation, there may be no increase at all.
How to See Your Own Number
The most reliable estimate of your SSDI payment comes from your official Social Security Statement, which shows your earnings history and projected benefits for disability, retirement, and survivors.
Create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov. Identity verification uses Login.gov or ID.me, and once you’re in, the statement is available immediately.13Social Security Administration. Create an Account – my Social Security
Prefer paper? Print and mail Form SSA-7004 (Request for Social Security Statement) to the address on the form. Paper statements usually arrive in four to six weeks.14Social Security Administration. Request for a Social Security Statement SSA-7004
Read your statement carefully. A missing year of earnings or an employer that reported wages incorrectly will directly lower your calculated benefit. SSA imposes a time limit on correcting the earnings record, so catching errors early — well before you need to file a claim — is worth the few minutes it takes.