Age and Social Security Disability Application

[I Need SSI / SSDI]

Do you have to be above a certain age to get benefits? I hear it is hard to get benefits if you are below forty.

[Social Security Guy]

It is possible for children to qualify for benefits, as well as people in their teens, twenties, thirties, and forties. While the rules are easier on people aged fifty or older, age alone is not dispositive.

Cases involving children can be more difficult to win, as they tend to drag out longer and many of the medical conditions that give rise to claims for children (e.g., seizure disorders, ADHD, or athsma) may improve with treatment or over time. Also, obviously, children's disabilty can't be gauged upon their ability to work, but is instead based on more nebulous notions of their ability to perform age-appropriate activities as compared to other children.

For young adults, and people in their thirties and forties, the medical and vocational allowances are more restrictive than for older applicants, but a disability is still a disability.