Supplemental Security Income (SSI): Payments for children with disabilities

Children younger than age 18 are eligible if they have a medical condition or combination of conditions that meets Social Security’s definition of disability. Their income and resources must fall within the eligibility limits. The amount of the SSI payment differs from state to state because some states add to the SSI payment

SSI rules about disability Your child must meet all the following disability requirements to be considered medically eligible for SSI:

The child, if not blind, must not be working or earning more than $1,620 a month in 2025.

The child, if blind, must not be working or earning more than $2,700. This amount usually changes every year.

The child must have a medical condition or a combination of conditions, that results in “marked and severe functional limitations.”

The condition(s) must very seriously limit the child’s activities.

The child’s condition(s) must have been disabling or be expected to be disabling for at least 12 months; or the condition(s) must be expected to result in death.

We will ask you for detailed information about the child’s medical condition and how it affects the child’s ability to perform daily activities. We will also ask you to give permission to allow the doctors, teachers, therapists, and other professionals who have information about your child’s condition to send it to us. Please provide any of your child’s medical or school records that you have. This will help speed up the decision making process.

What happens next?

They send all the information you give us, and we give to them, to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office in your state. Doctors and other trained staff in that state agency will review the information.

The state agency may take 6 to 8 months to decide if your child’s condition meets our criteria for disability.

For some medical conditions, however, they make SSI payments right away, for up to 6 months, while the state agency decides if your child meets the criteria for immediate payment.

Children with disabilities low birth weight…can they apply?

These conditions include, but are not limited to:

• Total blindness. • Total deafness.

• Cerebral palsy. • Down syndrome.

• Muscular dystrophy.

• Severe intellectual disability (child age 4 or older).

• Symptomatic HIV infection.

• Birth weight below 2 pounds, 10 ounces — They evaluate low birth weight in infants from birth to attainment of age 1 and failure to thrive in infants and toddlers from birth to attainment of age 3. They use the infant’s birth weight as 4 documented by an original or certified copy of the infant’s birth certificate or by a medical record signed by a physician.

sited:https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/index.html