Determining the Amount of SSI Benefits You Can Receive
The submission process for getting benefits can be a long and arduous one. This is because the Social Security Administration has limited resources to handle an increasing number of claims. This does not mean, however, that you are not able to receive these benefits. You simply have to be prepared. However, if you have already submitted a claim, then it can be helpful to determine how much in benefits you can be awarded. There are a couple of ways that the administration decides the amount to be awarded. These are Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME), and Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). Both of these are taken into consideration when looking at your case, and will affect the amount of money you receive.
AIME uses your work and income history to determine an average monthly payment amount. The reason that they look at your history is to ascertain fluctuations in your earnings, such as cost of living increases, and hopefully mirror any rises in income when paying your claim. The SSA will look at up to thirty-five years of your work history to determine the average monthly income. They take the years with the highest earnings, total them, and then divide by the number of months in those years. Unfortunately, they then round that number down, but it should be an accurate estimate of your average earnings.
PIA is what the Administration uses to determine your base benefits amount. They take the values of your AIME and use three specific points to decide a dollar amount to pay. These points are ninety percent of the first $791 in monthly earnings, thirty-two percent of monthly earnings between $791 and $4768, and then fifteen percent of any earnings over $4768. They add all of these numbers and round down to the nearest amount that is divisible by $0.10. While this may seem a bit complicated, the SSA does provide estimates after you submit your claim.
If you have any questions about how to determine the amount of benefits you will receive, and live in Maryland or across the country, contact us today and we can help you through the process.
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