Life’s troubles do not just strike adults. They also visit children. But, fortunately, New Jersey children suffering from a disability can get help in the form of supplemental security income. To learn more about the rules for children to receive SSI benefits, keep reading.
Who is a child for SSI purposes? A person is a child if they are not married, not a head of household and either under the age of 18 or under the age of 22 if the person is a student regularly attending school.
Which children are eligible for SSI benefits? Children who are blind or disabled. To be considered blind a child must meet the same definition as an adult would. In other words, they must either have 20/200 or less vision in their better eye or a visual field limitation in their better eye in which the widest diameter of the eye’s visual field subtends at an angle of 20 degrees or less. Meanwhile, a child is disabled if they have a medically determinable mental or physical impairment that causes serious functional limitations that may result in death, has lasted at least one year or likely will last for at least one year.
How does a parent’s income affect a child’s SSI benefits? It depends. But assuming a child is not married, under 18 years old and living at home with parents who are not receiving SSI benefits, then part of a parent’s income and other resources will be treated as available to the child. As a result, that income and resources will factor into whether the child qualifies for SSI’s income and resource requirements.
New Jerseyans who want to know more may benefit from discussing their situation with an experienced SSI attorney.
