1. There are actually two forms of Social Security disability insurance
As a general rule, when someone refers to “Social Security disability,” he or she is talking about Social Security Disability Insurance, known as SSDI. This is basically the program planned to return a lost income if an American worker who is covered by Social Security becomes disabled.
Additionally, there is a program called Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, that is based on financial need, not an individual’s work record.
However, even if both programs use the same definition of “disabled,” and there’s some overlap between them, there are also considerable differences.
SSI and SSDI are practically designed for two different categories of disabled workers; the benefits and qualifying requirements differ; and the funding sources are pretty different too.
