Social Security Disability Benefits — The Numbers

Average, 2026

$1,630

Substantial gainful activity

$1,690/mo

Blind SGA

$2,830/mo

Trial work month

$1,210/mo

A disability benefit is computed from the same formula as a retirement benefit, but on a shorter earnings record — the elapsed years are counted to the year of disability rather than to 62. The cost-of-living adjustment applies identically.

What is different is the work rules. Three separate thresholds govern earnings, and they are frequently confused with each other:

Medicare arrives after 24 months of disability entitlement, at which point the Part B premium starts coming out of the payment exactly as it does for a retired worker. The premium series.

Substantial gainful activity, every year since 1975 · the trial work period series.

The other programmes

• Social Security Retirement

  The rates, the formula and the COLA as they apply to a retired worker.

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

  The federal benefit rate, the resource limits and why SSI has no Medicare premium deducted.

• Survivors Benefits

  Widow and widower rates, the family maximum, and how the COLA applies to a survivor payment.

• Spousal Benefits

  The spousal percentage of the worker PIA, the family maximum ceiling and the COLA.

• Children's Benefits

  What a child on a worker record receives, and the family maximum that caps it.

The rates behind these figures

• Average benefitsand the distribution
• Maximum benefit$4,152 at FRA
• Bend pointsthe formula
• SSI rateevery year
• The 2026 COLA2.8%
• Your amount24 FRA years too