THE DISABILITY WAITING PERIOD

SSDI, the normal Social Security disability program, does not pay for the first 5 full months of disability.  This 5-month period is called "the waiting period."

It often takes more than 5 months to get approved, anyway.  So, by the time your application is approved, you have already past the 5 month waiting period and are ready to start getting benefits.  If back pay is due, Social Security simply deducts 5 months of benefits from the total back pay.

In the rare instance where a person gets approved very quickly, they must wait a full 5 months to get benefits.  The 5 months is calculated from the date of onset, not from the date of approval.  The date of onset is nearly always earlier than the date of approval.

For example:

Onset Date of Disability:  June 3, 2017
Date of Approval by SSI:   December 31, 2017
Eligible for payment:       December 2017

In the above example, by the time Social Security approves the claim, the 5-month waiting period has already passed.  There is no back pay but the claimant gets paid for December (the December payment arrives in January, one month in the arrears).

There is another waiting period for Medicare benefits to start.  Medicare begins 24 months after the claimant becomes eligible for a payment.  In the example above, Medicare coverage begins in December 2019.

Social Security administers another program called Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and these rules do not apply to SSI.  SSI recepients has no waiting period and it comes with Medicaid, not Medicare.  Medicaid does not have the 2 year waiting period.