The Social Security Disability Insurance program, which is known as SSDI, is a federal program run by the Social Security Administration in the US. It offers basic monthly cash help to people who cannot work because of a qualifying medical disability.
Four SSDI payment dates were defined for September 2025, which are handed out by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on a fixed schedule that depends on the beneficiary’s date of birth. This system of periodic payments has been used since June 1997.
SSDI disability payments: September dates stablished by the SSA
The second Wednesday of September 2025 is on September 10th. SSDI payments for that day will be made to all people with birthdays between the 1st and the 10th of any month. The third Wednesday of September 2025 is on the 17th of the month.
These are the days payments are made to all those with birthdays between the 11th and the 20th of any month. The fourth Wednesday of the month is September 24th. Payments will be made to all persons with birthdays between the 21st and the 31st.
There is an extra class of those who will get their payments on a different date. People who get both SSDI and supplemental security income will get their combined payment on the third day of the month. Also, any person who started getting SSDI before May 1997 will also be paid in this way, no matter what their birthday is. For September 2025, the date of this type of payment will be September 3rd, 2025, which is a Wednesday.
How much to expect from SSDI benefits
The average amount will be approximately $1,580 (a dollar amount that may change due to the annual cost-of-living adjustment, COLA). The average includes the estimated COLA of 2.5 percent for 2025. The maximum benefit for one person who worked the most for the maximum amount of time (more than 35 years at near or at the maximum taxable amount) will be $4,018.
Rules to be eligible for SSDI
The rules include both medical and nonmedical standards for benefits. The nonmedical criteria are about the applicant’s work history in jobs covered by Social Security. An applicant must have earned enough work credits to qualify for SSDI. In general, 40 credits are needed. A maximum of four credits can be earned each year.
The yearly amount of money an applicant must earn to get a credit is adjusted annually. For 2025, an applicant must earn about $1,810 for each credit. Of the 40 credits, 20 must have been earned during the ten years immediately before the applicant became disabled. This is needed to ensure the applicant has a recent link to the work world.
The medical criteria are just as strict
The applicant must have a physical or mental disease that has a specific cause that can be seen to continue at least one year or result in death. The applicant’s disease must be so important that it stops him or her from doing any job that pays well.
The SSA has an official list of diseases, called the Listing of Impairments, that are thought to be important enough to automatically stop a person from working well. But, a person not on the list can still be approved if he or she can prove the disease is as bad as a disease on the list, or that it stops him or her from doing their past work or any other kind of work.
The application for SSDI process has five steps
The Social Security Administration checks to see if the applicant is working now and doing well, if the disease is severe, if the disease is on the list, if the applicant can do his or her past work, or if the disease stops him or her from doing any other work.
An applicant who has not yet gotten to his or her full retirement age (67 for those born in 1960 or later) has limits on how much money he or she can get while getting benefits. In 2025, the limit on how much money an applicant can get without losing benefits is $1,550 a month.
For people who are blind, the limit is higher, at $2,590 a month. There is also a yearly limit on how much money an applicant can try to make while still getting benefits.
For those who are not full retirement age for the whole year, the yearly limit is $23,400. One dollar in benefits will be taken away for every $2 made over that amount, until the month the applicant turns full retirement age. If the applicant will turn full retirement age in 2025, the limit increases to $62,160.
The remaining months in 2025 will be calculated as if the applicant reaches full retirement age in the middle of the year. For those months, one dollar will be taken away for every $3 made over that amount, until the applicant turns 67.