AARP Eye Center
The Social Security Administration (SSA) takes several months to process a disability-based application for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a monthly benefit for disabled and older people with very low incomes. Applicants with certain medical conditions, however, may be able to collect advance payments while awaiting a decision on their claim.
These presumptive disability (PD) benefits are designed to provide financial support for people whom the SSA deems highly likely to be approved for SSI, based on the information in their application. The payments can last up to six months and typically do not have to be repaid, even if the agency ultimately decides the applicant is not medically qualified for disability benefits.
AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
A finding of presumptive disability is based on the severity of your impairment and the medical evidence available when you applied. In most cases your SSI claim or a claim you make on behalf of another person must involve one or more of these conditions to warrant early payments:
- AIDS or a symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
- Amputation of a leg at the hip
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease
- Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or muscle atrophy resulting in marked difficulty in speaking, using hands or arms, or walking
- Confinement to bed — or immobility without crutches, a walker or a wheelchair — because of a long-standing condition and not an accident or recent surgery
- Down syndrome
- End-stage renal disease, also known as chronic kidney failure
- An intellectual disability or neurodevelopmental disorder, such as autism, accompanied by the inability to perform basic self-care activities like eating or dressing
- Low birth weight in a child not yet 1 year old
- A spinal-cord injury resulting in the inability to move without a walker or similar apparatus
- A stroke that occurred at least three months prior and causes continued difficulty in walking or using hands or arms
- Terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than six months
- Total blindness
- Total deafness
