BACK PAY

Most claimants who are approved for Social Security disability benefits also receive back pay--paid in a lump sum--in addition to their monthly benefits.  Back pay depends on 2 things:

1.  date of the application for benefits and
2. date the disability began

 You are permitted to collect retroactive benefits that you qualified for prior to filing your application.  You can collect benefits back to the date you became disabled.  However, the regulations limit these retroactive benefits to 12 months prior to the application date, even if you actually became disabled years earlier.  You are also entitled to add the 5 month waiting period, for a total maximum retroactive payment of 17 months.

Back payments are different.  Back payments allow you to recover one month of benefits for each month after you filed your application, up to the month Social Security finally pays your benefit.  Back payments are in addition to retroactive benefits and there is no limit on how many months of back pay you could receive.  For example, if you filed your application August 1 2012 but Social Security's decision making and payment processing did not occur until October of 20154, you would be entitled to an additional back pay amount equaling 16 months of benefits.  Retroactive benefits and back pay would be issued in a lump sum.

A vital point in recovering retroactive benefits is the established onset date (EOD)--the date you first became disabled under Social Security's rules.  The EOD must be established by objective medical evidence.  One of the duties of your representative is to ensure that you get the earliest EOD possible, thus collect the maximum amount of retroactive benefit to which you are entitled.