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

The five-month waiting period refers to the fact that even if you're approved for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), you generally won't get paid  benefits for the first five months since your disability onset date. (Your onset date is the earliest that you met Social Security's definition of disability.) Fortunately, most people don’t actually sit through a five-month wait after approval. Because disability claims often take many months to decide, the waiting period is usually used up while your application is pending. It mainly reduces your back pay rather than delaying your first check.

Still, the five-month waiting period can be an extra hurdle during a time when finances are already tight. It's a good idea to learn a bit about how the waiting period is calculated, what that means for your back pay, and which applicants may be able to bypass the five-month waiting period altogether.

Are There Exceptions to the SSDI Five-Month Waiting Period?

There are some circumstances when the five-month waiting period doesn’t apply. In these cases, you can get disability benefits as soon as your claim is approved, and you won’t lose any of your back pay.

The four major exceptions to the five-month waiting period for SSDI are as follows:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. If you’ve been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), you don't have to wait five months to begin receiving SSDI benefits.

SSI. If you’ve been approved for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits, you won’t be subject to the five-month waiting period like SSDI applicants are. Instead, you’ll be eligible for your first SSI payment in the month after you apply for disability. But you’ll likely receive the first few months' payments as back pay since Social Security takes at least a few months to grant disability benefits.

Reinstatement of benefits. If you stopped receiving SSDI benefits because you went back to work, and then you become disabled again, you won’t have to wait five months to receive benefits the second time around. There’s no waiting period as long as no more than five years have passed between your first onset date of disability and your second. This is called expedited reinstatement.

Dependent benefits. If you're applying for benefits as the child of a disabled worker, your application isn’t subject to any waiting period. For more information, see our section on SSDI dependent benefits.

When the Five-Month Waiting Period Starts

The five-month waiting period starts on your established onset date (EOD) of disability. Your EOD is the date that Social Security says you became disabled. Thus your date of entitlement to Social Security benefits—the date when you’re first owed a monthly payment—doesn't start until five months after your EOD. If you recover or go back to work during this five-month period, Social Security won't have to start your benefits or pay you back pay.

How the Five-Month Waiting Period Relates to Your SSDI Application Date

The five-month waiting period means that you'll need to have an established onset date at least 17 months prior to your application date in order to get the highest amount of SSDI benefits you're entitled to. That's because SSDI benefits can be paid up to 12 months before your application date, but when you factor in the five-month waiting period, the math works out to needing an EOD of 17 months before you file to get the most benefits.

Social Security can set your EOD after your application date if the agency doesn't believe you became unable to work until sometime after you applied. For those applicants, the five-month waiting period would start after the application date.

How Will the Five-Month Waiting Period Affect Your Benefits?

For most people, the five-month waiting period will reduce the amount of back pay they get, but doesn't effect the date they start receiving an SSDI paycheck. That's because it usually takes longer than five months for Social Security can decide whether somebody is disabled, so if five months have passed before you're approved for benefits, the waiting period is over, and you can start receiving your ongoing monthly payments right away. (Learn more in our article on how long you have to be disabled before you can get disability benefits.) 

In some cases, the five-month waiting period can delay your first SSDI check, but this is rare. This scenario can occur if you're approved for disability pretty much right away, but Social Security finds that your EOD is after your application date. (This may happen if you applied close to a birthday that would move you into a different age category under the medical-vocational grid rules.) In this instance, you may have to wait to receive your first SSDI check. 

How a Protective Filing Date Affects Your Five-Month Waiting Period

Social Security can use your protective filing date instead of your application date for purposes of calculating the five-month waiting period, which can increase the amount of back pay you'll receive. A protective filing date is the time that you first notified Social Security of your intent to apply disability benefits. You have six months from your protective filing date to submit your completed application, but once you do, the protective filing date will take the place of your actual application date for the purposes of calculating back pay. So if Social Security finds that you were disabled at least five months before your protective filing date, you can be paid disability benefits for 12 months before that date rather than the later application date. 

Getting Legal Help For Your Application

If you aren't sure how or when to file for SSDI, you may want to consider hiring a disability advocate or attorney who can help you with timing the application process advantageously. An experienced lawyer can help you pick an onset date that best reflects your medical records and maximizes your potential back pay. Disability attorneys work on contingency, meaning they don't get paid unless (and until) you win, and many offer free consultations, so there's little risk in asking around to find a lawyer who is a good fit for you.