What are Child Disability Benefits?

Child’s Disability Benefits (CDB) are a type of SSI program. It provides financial support to children age 17 or younger who are disabled. Social Security uses different rules for determining disability in a child’s claim than in an adult claim. To be found disabled, the child must have a physical or mental condition which causes marked or severe functional limitations. As with SSI claims, to be eligible for Child’s Disability Benefits the parents’ household income must not exceed a certain maximum level.

Disabled Adult Child Benefits (DAC or called CID) are not SSI benefits. They may be paid to a child age 18 or older who became disabled before age 22, and to a full-time elementary or secondary school student under age 19. If the parent is alive, he or she must be entitled to retirement or disability benefits. If deceased, the parent must have worked long enough under Social Security for survivor’s benefits to be paid.

A disabled child age 18 or older may be entitled to Social Security benefits based on his or her parent’s account when a parent has worked long enough under the program and is entitled to disability benefits or is deceased. The criteria used to evaluate the disability are the same as those used to evaluate disability in adults. The child must be unable to work because of a medical condition that has lasted or is expected either to last at least 12 months or to result in death. The child’s disability must have begun before age 22.