Illinois social security disability
Illinois Disability Lawyers: For Public Employees, Which Plan You Are In Decides the Money
Illinois is one of four states where a public employer's disability benefit can be reduced instead of your Social Security. Whether that happens turns on which plan you are in and whether your government job was covered by Social Security at all.
That sentence covers a lot of people here. Between the state system and the municipal fund, Illinois public employment reaches counties, villages, park districts, libraries and school district staff, and the rules land differently on each of them. The difference shows up in the deposit, and almost nobody is told which plan they are in before it matters. Seven hearing offices decide Illinois claims and two of them are in other states.
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States where a public disability benefit can be reduced instead of Social Security
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Disability plans in the state retirement system, treated three different ways
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Hearing offices deciding Illinois claims, two of them outside Illinois
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Why Illinois is different
How a Public Disability Benefit Affects Social Security Disability in Illinois
The state retirement system runs three disability plans and they are treated three different ways, and the municipal fund is treated differently again.
Sometimes the state absorbs the reduction and sometimes Social Security does. Most states with this arrangement apply it to workers' compensation. Illinois is one of only four that apply it to public disability benefits, meaning payments from a government employer's own disability plan rather than from a comp claim.
Worth setting expectations before the detail: there is no single Illinois answer, and anyone who gives you one has not looked at your paperwork. The state retirement system runs three disability plans and they are treated three different ways, and the municipal fund is treated differently again.
Underneath all of it sits one question that decides more than any other: whether your government job was covered by Social Security as well as by the retirement system. Coordinated employees were covered by both. Non-coordinated employees were covered only by the state system in that job, and for them the reduction generally falls on the federal benefit. That same question also shapes what work history you have on the Social Security side.
Plan by plan
The Three Illinois State Retirement Disability Plans and Social Security
The non-occupational plan, for a disability that did not come from the job, carries an arrangement that predates the federal cutoff. For coordinated employees Social Security recognizes it and does not reduce the federal benefit. For non-coordinated employees it does.
The temporary plan, paid in disputed cases while an appeal is pending, carries an arrangement Illinois enacted after the federal cutoff, and Social Security does not recognize it. The offset applies, and it is calculated on the full benefit that would have been payable before any state reduction, so the number Social Security uses can be larger than the payment arriving in your account.
The occupational plan, for a work-related injury, is the reverse of the first. The state does not reduce its own payment for Social Security, and the federal offset applies instead. Three plans in one system, and the difference between them is not something a claimant would ever guess.
The municipal fund
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Disability and Your Social Security Claim
It is funded entirely by the employer, which is why people often describe it as salary protection rather than as a pension.
This one is simpler and it is good news. The municipal fund's arrangement was in place before the federal cutoff, so receiving its disability benefits does not reduce Social Security, and the agency's instructions tell staff to code the case accordingly.
The fund pays a temporary benefit and, once that is exhausted, a total and permanent one, with a waiting period at the start unless the condition is a recurrence. It is funded entirely by the employer, which is why people often describe it as salary protection rather than as a pension.
What this means in practice is that a village clerk, a park district groundskeeper and a school custodian may be in a much better position than a state employee with a similar condition, for reasons that have nothing to do with either of them.
What to do first
Finding Out Which Illinois Disability Plan Applies to Your Claim
Settle which plan and which group before anything else, because every other answer depends on it. The award letter from the retirement system should say what type of benefit it is.
The fear this raises is that a wrong assumption has already cost something. Usually it has not. These figures are corrected when the right information reaches Social Security, and the agency's own instructions describe requesting that information from the system directly, with the worker's signed consent, when the letter does not make it clear.
We can tell you how each plan is treated once we know which one you are on. What nobody can tell you from the outside is which one that is, because it depends on paperwork held by a retirement system rather than by Social Security.
Where your case is decided
Which Hearing Office Decides Your Illinois Disability Claim?
One of seven. Chicago, Evanston, Oak Brook and Orland Park carry the metropolitan area between them, Peoria takes central and western Illinois, and the southern end of the state leaves: the metro east goes to St. Louis, in Missouri, and deep southern Illinois goes to Evansville, in Indiana.
Orland Park is the assignment that surprises people. It sits in the south suburbs and it also covers Champaign and Danville, a long way downstate, because these areas are drawn around the field office map rather than around distance.
Which office takes your file follows the Social Security field office that serves your address, and it is not a preference you enter on a form, though a claimant can ask Social Security to change the place of a hearing and it decides that on good cause, under 20 CFR 404.936(f) and (g).
The seven offices
Every Hearing Office That Decides Illinois Disability Claims
Hearing offices
7decide this state's claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than cities or counties, which is how the assignment is actually made.
Seven hearing offices decide Illinois claims: Chicago, Evanston, Evansville, Indiana, Oak Brook, Orland Park, Peoria and St. Louis, Missouri. Evansville and St. Louis sit outside Illinois. Peoria also takes claims filed in Iowa.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office and updates it monthly, so check the office that takes your claim.
Cities we serve in Illinois
Illinois Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Illinois. Chicago has its own page. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Illinois SSDI Questions: Public Pensions, Plan Types and Hearing Offices
I am receiving IMRF disability benefits. Will Social Security be reduced?
No. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund had its arrangement in place before the federal cutoff date, so Social Security recognizes it and does not reduce your disability benefit because of an IMRF payment. Social Security's own instructions tell staff to code these cases as reverse jurisdiction. That covers a great many people, because IMRF serves counties, villages, park districts, libraries and school district staff outside teaching.
I am a state employee on the SERS non-occupational plan. Does that reduce my Social Security?
It depends which group you are in. For coordinated employees, whose state job was covered by both the retirement system and Social Security, the non-occupational plan is a recognized arrangement and Social Security is not reduced. For non-coordinated employees, whose state job was covered by the retirement system only, Social Security is reduced. Same plan, two answers, decided by something that happened when you were hired.
What does coordinated mean on my SERS paperwork?
It describes whether your state job paid into Social Security as well as the retirement system. Coordinated employees are covered by both. Non-coordinated employees are covered only by the state system in that job. The distinction runs through every answer on this page, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming, because it also affects what work history you have on the Social Security side.
I am on the SERS temporary disability plan. Is it treated the same way?
No, and this is the trap. The temporary plan is paid in disputed cases while an appeal is pending, and Illinois enacted its arrangement for that plan after the federal cutoff date, so Social Security does not recognize it. Where the offset applies, Social Security uses the full benefit that would have been payable before any state reduction, which means the figure it uses may be larger than the payment you actually receive. Coordinated employees who meet Social Security's 85 percent exclusion test are not subject to the offset at all.
My disability was work related and I am on occupational disability. Does that change anything?
Yes. Under that plan the state does not reduce its own payment for Social Security at all, and Social Security's offset applies instead. So the plan that comes from a work injury is treated differently from the plan that comes from an injury off the job, inside the same retirement system.
My award letter does not say which plan I am on. How do I find out?
Ask the retirement system, and Social Security can too. The award letter should distinguish the type of benefit, and where it does not, Social Security's own instructions tell staff to request the information from the system in writing with the worker's signed consent. Getting this settled early is worth more than almost anything else on this page, because every other answer depends on it.
Public employee in Illinois? Which plan you are on changes the answer.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which office your address routes to. We work from Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations by phone or video. There is no Illinois office and none is implied.