Disability benefits in Mississippi are provided through a federal program administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), but there are differences in each state, including:
Below is an overview of the information specific to Mississippi.
You apply for disability benefits online or through a local Social Security field office. At the field office (or over the phone), a claims representative will review your application to make sure you've met all of the technical requirements for benefits (such as the work history requirements for SSDI or the income limits for SSI).
If you meet the technical requirements, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will send your application to a claims examiner at Mississippi's Disability Determination Services (DDS) office in Madison for a medical decision to be made on your records.
Here is some of the basic information you'll need to apply:
For more information, read our article on how to get your application filled out and filed.
Mississippi's Disability Determination Services (DDS) is the state agency that makes decisions on whether or not a Mississippian is disabled, based on their medical records.
If you have questions about your application after it is filed, you should contact DDS. Below is the contact information.
MS DDS
1281 Highway 51 North
Madison, MS 39110
Telephone: 800-962-2230
If the claims examiner at Mississippi DDS denies your claim, you can ask that a different claims examiner reconsider it. You do this by filing a reconsideration request (this is the first level of appeal).
If your claim is denied again, you can request a hearing by filing a request for a hearing with an administrative law judge. The DDS will then send your claim to the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO), a branch of Social Security in either Hattiesburg, Jackson, Tupelo, or Memphis, where a judge will decide your case at a disability hearing.
It takes about four to six months to get an initial decision from Mississippi's DDS. If your claim is denied, it will likely take another three to five months to get an answer on the reconsideration.
If you get turned down a second time and have to go to a disability hearing, you're less than halfway done. In 2023, it's taking an average of 16 months to get a hearing date in Mississippi, from the time you file a request for hearing until the date the case is decided by an ALJ.
In Mississippi, when DDS reviews your initial application, you have a lower chance of being approved for benefits compared to the national average, though many of these denials are reversed at the appeal hearing. Below is a chart comparing Mississippi's statistics to the national averages.
Stage of Application |
Mississippi |
Nationally |
Initial Application |
34% |
38% |
Reconsideration Review |
14% |
15% |
Appeal Hearing |
53% |
57% |
Hearing Wait Time |
16 months |
15 months |
Source: ALJ Disposition Data Fiscal Year 2023 and Average Wait Time Until Hearing, June 2023 (Social Security).
In Mississippi, health care providers may charge you to make you a copy of your medical records to submit with your disability application or appeal, but the state limits how much a provider is allowed to charge you.
Number of Pages |
Cost Per Page |
1-20 |
No more than $20 for the set |
21-80 |
$1 |
81 and above |
$0.50 |
In addition to the charge per page, health care providers may charge you 10% of the total cost of copied pages, for postage and handling. They may also charge you $15 if they have to get your records from an off-site location.
The average SSDI payment in Mississippi is $1,480 per month, but some people receive up to $3,620, depending on their past income. (And widows and disabled adult children receive less.) Read more about how Social Security calculates your SSDI payment.
The monthly SSI payments from the federal government are $914 for an individual or $1,371 for a couple, but these amounts are usually reduced because SSI recipients often have earned or unearned income. So the average SSI payment in Mississippi is only $553. The State of Mississippi does not offer any state supplementary payment for SSI recipients.
The State of Mississippi exempts 100% of Social Security benefits and SSI benefits from a resident's tax liability. That means the state doesn't tax SSDI or SSI payments.
For people with higher incomes, the federal government will tax a portion of their SSDI benefits. But the IRS doesn't tax SSI benefits.
The Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) is the office that handles all disability appeals. When you have a hearing, you will go to one of the four hearing offices that handles the disability appeals for Mississippi.
Below is the contact information for the three hearing offices in Mississippi and one in Tennessee, which is currently hearing appeals for applicants from the Olive Branch field office.
Hattiesburg Hearing Office |
1901 Broadway Drive Telephone: 866-348-5831 Services the following Social Security field offices: Brookhaven, Forest, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Laurel, McComb, Meridian, Moss Point, Natchez, and Philadelphia |
Jackson Hearing Office |
McCoy Federal Building, Suite 401 Telephone: 888-385-8499 Services the following Social Security field offices: Cleveland, Greenville, Greenwood, Jackson, Kosciusko, and Vicksburg |
Tupelo Hearing Office |
1150 South Green Street Telephone: 866-275-9405 Services the following Social Security field offices: Clarksdale, Columbus, Corinth, Grenada, Starkville, and Tupelo |
Memphis Hearing Office |
309 Monroe Avenue Services the Olive Branch field office in Mississippi |
Before your hearing, check for address and phone number changes with Social Security's hearing office locator.
Individuals who are disabled often face difficulties going back to work, if they can at all. The Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services (MDRS) is available to help those with disabilities find and keep a job.
Specifically, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) is the office that provides services including job counseling, job training, assistance finding a job, and help at your job, as needed. To apply for services, you should apply online or contact your local MDRS office.
If you'd like to find out more about getting disability and what to expect during the application process, check out these articles:
Updated September 11, 2023
Other Sources:
Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2021
Annual Statistical Supplement, 2022
Need a lawyer? Start here.