Raising a child with a disability can put an enormous amount of stress and pressure not only on the child in the situation but also on the parents doing the caring.
In such situations, it is possible to relieve some of the pressure that comes along with the financial hardships of raising a child with a disability. Social Security Disability benefits may apply in certain situations even if your child still has the ability to work.
Supporting a child with benefits
Social Security discusses impacts on a child’s life that might result in a failure to thrive. First, what conditions or impairments may impact a child’s ability to thrive? Some conditions can include low birth weight, or developmental delay especially related to premature birth.
Such benefits will fall under the category of parents providing for their children, which allows a parent access to benefits that they can use to support their child’s often expensive care. Access to such benefits may occur as early as the birth of the child.
Meeting qualifying conditions
In order to receive such benefits, however, a parent must fit the qualifying conditions. First, failure to thrive needs to involve a failure within one of the SSA’s categorical lists of impairments. For weight, a child must fall within the bottom third percentile in the weight-for-length measurements. These measurements will happen three times, with each measurement taking place 60 days apart.
They must also experience a consistent developmental delay that will result in them placing in the lower two-thirds of their age group. If they have two separate delays 120 days apart, they also qualify.
