Receiving Back Child Support?

I recently was diagnosed with two different cancers and am currently being treated. One cancer is a terminal. My team of doctors suggest applying for permanent disability, since I'm sick and can't work. For the past year, I have been receiving back child support payments even though my kids are now grown adults. The back child support payments are for support that was never paid when my children were young. I supported them all on my own, with no financial support from the absent parent. Now, I receive back child support payments in different amounts and not consistently. The payments vary from month to month and occasionally there are months that I don't receive a payment at all. At this time I have no other source of income and will be applying for disability benefits due to my illnesses. Can Social Security consider my back child support payment as income and disqualify me from receiving Social Security benefits? Remember the payments are not consistent sometimes I don't receive any for a month or two and the amounts vary from anywhere from $100 to a thousand, depending on what the absent parent chooses to pay.

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mom-from-missouri
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 255 Posts

March 9, 20170 found this helpful

You would have to ask social security that one. Only they could tell you.

Judy
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 677 Posts

March 9, 20170 found this helpful

A person who owes child support and becomes disabled still has to pay. That person can ask to pay less if the disability is less than his original paycheck.

In your case, you never received money that was legally yours to begin with. My guess is that the fact that you now are disabled will not affect the amount you were supposed to get. However, I would check with Social Security to make sure.

cybergrannie
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March 10, 20171 found this helpful

You state that you will be applying for disability with Social Security due to your disability and as far as I have read your back support is not being received from someone on disability - just from an ex that receives his pay sporadically - for whatever reason.

You also state that you have no other means of support so it would stand to reason that one would wonder who is paying for your living expenses if your back support pay is such a small amount - even averaged out?
What type of SS disability program will you be applying under: SSDI or SSI? These are 2 entirely different programs and each has different "rules". SSDI is basically from at least 10 years of work and paying into the SS fund but SSI is handled by the SSA but it is not based on prior earnings.
Here is a short description of the how SSI will determine your benefit:
SSI benefits are reduced by any other income received by an SSI beneficiary, so many SSI recipients will receive less than the basic benefit amount.
This should answer your question about whether your benefit could be reduced by back support payments but since every case is different then you should know that only SSA can give you the full answer (as only SSA can determine if your back support payments are considered as "income").

There are basically 2 different SS disability programs and many people do not understand the difference between the two. Both programs are based on disability but SSDI (SSD) is based on a person's past earnings record and SSI is an entitlement program that is based on present income and assets.
It appears that your back child support payments are being paid through the court so SS would have full access to the amount you receive. However, as stated above, only SS can determine if they will use this as "income".
Here is a link to SSA that explains the difference between SSDI and SSI:

www.ssa.gov/.../aianssavsssifinalrev.pdf

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