Sorry, I don't drop by all that often anymore because the forum is slower.

DiMarie is referring to DAC (Disabled Adult Child) benefits or CDB (Childhood Disability Benefits).

If your daughter marries she will no longer be eligible for SSDI with the one exception if she marries someone also receiving SS benefits, this is called a "protected marriage". (It's rare but it does happen. This rule was put in place to allow two beneficiaries with mental impairments to get married without losing benefits.) If she were later to become divorced or widowed, she would not become eligible for DAC again, the exceptions being a voided or annulled marriage. She could of course still apply for SSI at that point if needed.

Right now she should be receiving 50% of whichever of your SS benefits is higher. She could receive up to 75% of either parent's benefit upon their death.

Disability Planner: Benefits For A Disabled Child

SSA - POMS: RS 00203.015 - Re-entitlement Requirements for Child's Benefits - 04/03/2013

There are special resources for young DAC beneficiaries to help them go to college or receive training and even work part time. If she can take classes online, you might want to encourage that. There are many jobs that can be done from home now. She could actually earn credits towards her own SS record.

Planning for Adult Children with Disabilities – Special Needs Alliance

Her CDB (formerly called DAC) would end unless, like a previous poster said, she is in a protected marriage to another CDB, but not to an SSI recipient.

There is an assumption in SSA law that marriage conveys a responsibility for the other person. That is why spouses can get benefits from the deceased or retired husband/wife. So when she marries, the responsibility for her shifts from her parents to her spouse. And she is no longer a dependent of her parents. She then has the potential to be eligible on the spouse's record if she meets age (62) requirements.

She will have to decide if keeping the CDB benefits is more or less important than marriage. It is a choice.

That is a great explanation, Thank You!

Usually, Social Security takes away benefits for a disabled person with a claim on a parent's work record as soon as they marry. The big exception is if they marry another disabled adult who is claiming benefits from a parent's work record.

That's because spouses have a legal duty to support one another.

What happens in reality of course is that it makes it impossible for people to get married because they would be financially sunk once the disabled person has ZERO income, still can't work, and becomes a financial drag on the marriage.

I'm quite certain that there are lots of people out there who avoid getting married and cohabitate because the government does stuff like this to people.

Oh, and if Social Security finds out that you're cohabitating with a person who you are intimate with and "could get married", they can treat you like you did get married and take benefits away even if you aren't married.

So, the way I see it, it's heads they win, tails you lose.

But it's probably hard to prove that such a situation exists. I've heard of senior citizens who are in a similar predicament (benefits from a deceased spouse) who cohabitate.

I'm not going to say it's the right or wrong thing to do, but these are Social Security's policies and what people in the real world are doing because of it.

Social Security, in many cases, is the classic example of a poverty trap.