The 2023 SSDI payment amounts

In 2023, the average SSDI payment was $1,349 per month. The maximum payment that year was $3,822 per month for someone at full retirement age. However, your actual payment depends on your work history and how much you earned while working — not on your medical condition or how severe your disability is.

Social Security calculates your payment based on your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), which comes from your lifetime earnings record. The higher your average earnings during your working years, the higher your SSDI payment will be. Two people with the same disability can receive very different amounts because their work histories are different.

These amounts change each year. Social Security adjusts payments in January based on inflation, using a measure called the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The 2023 COLA was 8.7 percent, which was higher than usual because of inflation that year. In 2024, the COLA was 3.2 percent, so payments went up by a smaller amount.

Key Takeaways

  • Your 2023 SSDI payment was based on your earnings record, not your disability diagnosis or how disabled you are.
  • The average payment in 2023 was $1,349 per month, but payments ranged from around $100 to $3,822 depending on work history.
  • Social Security adjusts all payments once a year in January to account for inflation, so 2024 payments were higher than 2023 payments.
  • If you were receiving SSDI in 2023, you can see your exact payment amount on your Social Security statement or by logging into your my Social Security account.

How Social Security calculates your payment

Your SSDI payment starts with your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). Social Security takes your 35 highest-earning years, adjusts them for inflation, and divides by 420 months. This gives them a monthly average that reflects what you typically earned while working.

Social Security then applies a formula to your AIME to get your Primary Insurance Amount. The formula uses three bend points — dollar amounts that change each year. In 2023, the bend points were $1,115 and $6,721. The formula gives you a higher percentage of your earnings on the first bend point and lower percentages as your earnings go up. This means lower-earning workers get a higher replacement rate than higher-earning workers.

If you were born before 1954 and claimed SSDI before your full retirement age, your payment may have been reduced. Social Security subtracts a percentage for each month you claimed before reaching full retirement age. The reduction is permanent — it does not go away when you reach full retirement age.

Why your 2023 payment might have been different from the average

The $1,349 average is just a middle point. Some people received much less because they had fewer working years or lower earnings. Others received more because they worked steadily at higher wages. Someone who worked part-time for 20 years will have a lower payment than someone who worked full-time for 40 years, even if both became disabled at the same age.

Your payment was also affected by when you claimed. If you claimed SSDI at age 25, your payment was lower than if you had waited until age 35 to claim, because you had fewer years of earnings to count. Social Security only counts actual work years — years when you earned income and paid Social Security taxes.

Family members on your record could have received payments too. If you had a spouse or children under 19 (or 19 if still in high school), they could have been may have access to to benefits based on your work record. Their payments came from your benefit amount, not in addition to it — the family maximum is usually 150 to 180 percent of your Primary Insurance Amount.

The 2023 COLA and how it affected payments

In October 2022, Social Security announced that 2023 payments would increase by 8.7 percent. This was the largest increase in 40 years. If you received $1,242 per month in 2022, your payment in 2023 would have been about $1,350 — an increase of about $108.

The COLA is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), measured from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next. When inflation is high, the COLA is high. When inflation is low or prices fall, the COLA can be zero or very small. In years with no COLA, payments stay the same as the year before.

The 8.7 percent increase in 2023 was unusual. Most years the COLA is between 1 and 3 percent. The high increase that year reflected the inflation spike in 2021 and 2022. By 2024, inflation had cooled, and the COLA dropped to 3.2 percent.

Checking your actual 2023 payment amount

The average and maximum amounts are useful for planning, but your actual payment in 2023 was on your Social Security statement. You can view your payment history by logging into your my Social Security account at ssa.gov. Click "Benefit Verification Letter" to see what you received each month.

If you do not have a my Social Security account, you can create one with your email, Social Security number, and date of birth. You will need to verify your identity using a phone number, address, or other information Social Security has on file. Once you are logged in, you can see your payment history going back several years.

If you received a paper statement in the mail in 2023, that statement showed your estimated payment amount. The actual amount you received may have been slightly different if you had work income that year — Social Security can reduce your payment if you earn above a certain amount before reaching full retirement age.

How 2023 payments compared to other years

The 2023 average of $1,349 was higher than 2022 ($1,242) because of the 8.7 percent COLA. It was also higher than most years before 2022, when COLAs were typically 1 to 2 percent. The maximum payment of $3,822 in 2023 was also higher than 2022's maximum of $3,627.

These numbers change every year. If you are looking at your 2023 payment now and wondering how it compares to what you receive today, remember that your current payment is higher because of the annual COLA adjustments in 2024 and beyond. Social Security announces the new COLA in October each year, and the increase takes effect in January.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the $1,349 average what I should expect to receive?

Not necessarily. The average includes people with very high payments and very low payments. Your actual 2023 payment depended on your work history. If you worked steadily at good wages, you likely received more than the average. If you had gaps in work or lower earnings, you likely received less.

Did everyone's payment go up by 8.7 percent in 2023?

Yes, if you were receiving SSDI in January 2023. Social Security applies the COLA to all beneficiaries. However, if you claimed SSDI for the first time in 2023, your first payment was based on the 2023 bend points and formula, not on a 2022 payment increased by 8.7 percent.

Why is my payment different from what I calculated using the average?

Your earnings record is unique. Social Security uses your actual 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for inflation. The formula also has bend points that give different percentages at different income levels. The easiest way to see how your payment was calculated is to request a detailed earnings statement from Social Security.

Can I find out what my 2023 payment was if I did not keep track?

Yes. Log into your my Social Security account and view your payment history, or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 to ask for a record of your 2023 payments. You can also request a Benefit Verification Letter, which shows your monthly payment amounts for any year you choose.

Will my payment in future years be higher than my 2023 payment?

Likely yes, because of annual COLA adjustments. However, the COLA varies each year based on inflation. If inflation is low, the COLA will be low. Your payment can also change if you continue to work and earn income — Social Security can add recent earnings to your record if they are higher than some of your earlier years.