What Is the Five-Month Waiting Period for Social Security Disability?

Disability claimants who have been approved to receive Social Security disability insurance benefits (also known as SSDI, SSD, and Title II disability benefits) are subject to a five-month waiting period before Social Security owes the claimant disability benefits. This means that the Social Security Administration (SSA) will withhold five months of an approved claimant's benefits before starting monthly payments (or, more likely, before calculating back payments owed to the claimant, since it takes so long to get a disability approval).

No waiting period for SSI. SSI claimants who have been approved to receive disability benefits are not subject to the five-month waiting period. SSI claimants will be eligible for their first payment on the first of the month after they apply for disability (but they will likely receive the first few months' payments in SSI back payments, since the SSA takes at least a few months to grant disability benefits).

When the waiting period starts. The five-month waiting period starts on the claimant's established onset date (EOD) of disability. (This is the date that the SSA says the claimant became disabled.) But the date of entitlement to Social Security benefits (when the claimant starts to be owed a monthly payment) doesn't start until five months after the EOD.

How the waiting period relates to the application date. When is the date of entitlement in relation to the application date? The date of entitlement can be no more than 12 months before the application date, which means that the EOD can be no more than 17 months before the application date. Of course, the EOD is only set that far back when the SSA believes you have been disabled for 17 months before the application date, or longer. For some claimants, the SSA actually sets the EOD after the application date.

EXAMPLE: Chris applies for disability for MS and is denied because the claims examiner doesn't find that her MS is severe enough (she doesn't have seerely limiting motor, visual, or mental difficulties). Chris appeals the decision and it takes a year to get an ALJ hearing. During this time her condition deteriorates, and at the hearing the ALJ finds that she became medically eligible for disability six months after her application date (this is both her medical onset date and her established onset date). Chris's SSDI payments start five months after her EOD.

For more information, see our article on the EOD and backpay.