klaus,
In regards to you earlier question. Actually, the payroll deduction is for Social Security Retirement benefits that are not available until 62 years old. Social Security administered Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is paid out to those with no income or assets to use to try to pay the bills. It is basically a welfare payment. It comes with Medicaid indigent medical benefits. Social Security Disability Income can be applied for at 12 months after disability caused unemployment. It is based on qualifying wages over the previous years and comes with Medicare medical benefits that are usually limited to the retired and over 65 group.

I have too much in assets to qualify for SSI so I exhausted all my savings and investments and had to sell assets while waiting for my SSDI application to get approved. The back pay I received upon approval was less than half the value of the assets I had to liquidate.

Some can get it quickly. Others, like me, will need to reapply and it may take 3 years before getting approved on the third application through a hearing. I should have been approved after my second application but the reviewer did not knwo math and calculated that I was still making too much income to qualify.

Some states like California have a mandatory State Disability Insurance system paid with payroll deductions. It pays based on the amount of contributions paid in.

Some employers have private disability insurance, both short term and sometimes long term. It can be problematic to get these benefits as 4mikee said.

Disability for those of us with a head injury needs to be properly supported with cognitive. memory and other testing since most of us are completely ambulatory. We can physically take out the trash but can't remember which day to take out the trash.

We are the invisible wounded.