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The amount of Social Security benefits you receive, both when disabled and when retired, is generally based on your average lifetime earnings. However, when you become blind, you can request a disability âfreeze.â This means that your benefits calculation can be frozen where it was prior to your blindness.
In several unofficial Social Security benefit resources, the average wait time is estimated to be approximately 90 days before the first monthly SSDI check is issued. You will receive two, possibly three different checks. The first check is your monthly SSDI award. This amount is determined by the length of time you worked in the past and how much you contributed to SSA. The second check is Social Security Disability back pay. The amount that you receive in back pay is determined by the date that you became disabled (for this purpose, disability means the point at which you became unable to work enough to be considered substantial gainful work activity, or SGA, the current 2009 SGA is $980/month.