Date Last Insured

In order to qualify for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits a claimant must have acquired enough work credits, which are earned by paying taxes into the Social Security systems. Work credits expire after a period of time. The Date Last Insured (“DLI”) is the day when the work credits expire. A claimant must establish that he became disabled before the DLI.

Some claimants are under the misperception that they are precluded from obtaining SSD benefits if they fail to apply before the DLI. A claimant can apply well after the DLI, and still be approved for SSD. I filed an SSD application last April for a 55 year old former salesperson whose DLI expired at the end of 1999. I received her SSD approval today.

When the claimant contacted me she had been led to believe that she was not eligible for SSD benefits because her DLI had expired in 1999. The claimant will now start receiving her monthly SSD as well as SSD benefits back to April 2009.