The 2018 SSDI payment amounts

In 2018, the average SSDI payment was $1,182 per month. The maximum payment that year was $2,788 per month for someone at full retirement age. The actual amount you would have received depended on your work history and earnings record, not on the severity of your condition.

Social Security calculates your payment by looking at your 35 highest-earning years. The longer you worked and the more you earned during those years, the higher your payment would be. If you had fewer than 35 years of earnings, Social Security counts zero-earning years, which lowers the total.

These 2018 figures matter if you were receiving SSDI that year or if you're trying to understand what your payment might have been. They also help you see how payments have changed since then — Social Security adjusts payments each year based on inflation.

Key Takeaways

  • The average SSDI payment in 2018 was $1,182 per month, though individual payments varied widely based on work history.
  • Your payment amount was determined by your earnings record, specifically your 35 highest-earning years, not by your medical condition.
  • The maximum payment in 2018 was $2,788 per month for someone at full retirement age, but most people received less.
  • Social Security adjusts all payments yearly for inflation, so 2018 amounts are lower than current payments.

How Social Security calculated your 2018 payment

Social Security used a formula based on your Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA. This is a number calculated from your lifetime earnings. The agency took your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted them for inflation to account for wage growth over time, and then applied a benefit formula to that number.

The formula itself has bend points — thresholds where the percentage of your earnings that counts toward your benefit changes. In 2018, the bend points were $1,088 and $6,542. This means the first $1,088 of your average monthly earnings counted as 90 percent toward your benefit, the amount between $1,088 and $6,542 counted as 32 percent, and anything above $6,542 counted as 15 percent. This structure means lower earners get a higher percentage of their earnings replaced, while higher earners get a lower percentage.

If you had a work history shorter than 35 years, the missing years counted as zero, which reduced your average and therefore your payment. You needed at least 6 quarters of coverage in the 13-quarter period ending when you became disabled to have any SSDI payment at all.

Family payments and the family maximum in 2018

Your SSDI payment could affect what your family members received. If you had a spouse or children under 19 (or 19 if still in high school), they might have been able to receive payments on your record. Each family member typically received 50 percent of your Primary Insurance Amount, though the rules were different for spouses at full retirement age.

However, there was a family maximum — a cap on the total amount all family members combined could receive. In 2018, this maximum was typically 150 to 180 percent of your own payment amount. If family members' combined payments exceeded this maximum, each person's payment was reduced proportionally.

This meant that having more family members on your record did not increase the total money your household received — it divided a fixed amount among more people.

Why 2018 payments were different from other years

Each year, Social Security adjusts all SSDI payments by a Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA. This percentage increase is based on inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index. In 2018, the COLA was 2 percent, which meant everyone receiving SSDI got a 2 percent raise in January 2018 compared to what they received in 2017.

The bend points and the maximum payment amount also changed each year because of this adjustment. Someone who was disabled in 2018 would have had a different payment calculation than someone who became disabled in 2017 or 2019, even if their work history was identical, because the bend points and wage-indexing factors were different.

If you were receiving SSDI in 2018 and want to know what your payment is now, you can check your Social Security statement online or call Social Security directly. Your current payment will be higher than your 2018 payment because of the annual adjustments that have happened since then.

Comparing 2018 payments to other years

The 2018 average payment of $1,182 was higher than 2017 (which averaged $1,171) because of the 2 percent COLA. It was lower than 2019 (which averaged $1,234) because that year had a 2.8 percent COLA. Current payments are substantially higher than 2018 because of multiple years of adjustments stacking on top of each other.

If you're trying to estimate what you might have received in 2018 based on a payment from a different year, you can work backward or forward using the COLA percentages for each year in between. However, this is an estimate only — your actual payment depended on the exact bend points and wage-indexing factors that were in effect that year.

Where to find your actual 2018 SSDI payment record

If you received SSDI in 2018, your actual payment amount appears on your Social Security statement. You can view past statements by creating an account at ssa.gov and logging into your "my Social Security" account. The statement shows your payment history month by month.

If you no longer have access to that information, you can call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 and request a copy of your payment history. They can tell you exactly what you received each month in 2018 and explain any changes that happened during that year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the 2018 SSDI payment the same for everyone?

No. The 2018 average was $1,182, but individual payments ranged from the minimum (around $30 per month for people with very limited work histories) to the maximum of $2,788. Your payment depended entirely on your earnings record, not on your condition or how much you needed.

Did SSDI payments in 2018 include Medicare or Medicaid?

No. The $1,182 average was the cash payment only. After 24 months of receiving SSDI, you became covered by Medicare. Medicaid coverage depended on your state and income level and was separate from your SSDI payment amount.

If I was disabled before 2018, was my payment different?

Your 2018 payment was based on your work history up to that point, but the calculation itself — the bend points and wage-indexing factors — changed each year. Someone disabled in 2015 would have had a different payment calculation in 2018 than in 2015, even with the same work history, because the formula itself had adjusted.

How much higher are SSDI payments now compared to 2018?

Payments have increased each year since 2018 through annual cost-of-living adjustments. The exact increase depends on how many years have passed and what the COLA was each year. You can see your current payment on your Social Security statement online.