What Is Date Last Insured (DLI) for Social Security?

Your date last insured (DLI) is the last date you’re eligible to meet the work and earnings requirements necessary to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

DLI can get complicated, but it’s an important concept to understand for SSDI eligibility — and many disability denials are because of DLI issues. By understanding your date last insured, you can submit the correct medical evidence to prove when your disability began.

What does DLI stand for in SSDI?

DLI stands for date last insured. This term refers to the last day after you stop working that you meet the technical requirements for Social Security disability benefits. In other words, your DLI is the last date you’re eligible to receive SSDI.

Why DLI matters for SSDI eligibility

To qualify for SSDI benefits, your disabling condition must have started before your DLI passes. If you’re applying for disability after your date last insured has passed, you’ll need to prove to the SSA that your disability onset date was before your DLI.

For most people, their date last insured is about five years after they stopped working. Typically, if your DLI is in the past, you are not eligible for Social Security disability benefits. But if it’s in the future, you should be good to go. Your DLI can also change if you return to work.

After you start receiving benefits, your DLI becomes irrelevant.

How the SSA uses your DLI

Understanding how the SSA uses your DLI is easier if you understand work credits. Your eligibility for SSDI is based on how many work credits you have. You can earn credits — up to a maximum of four per year — by working and paying taxes on your income.

This is where your DLI comes in. Once you stop working and stop earning work credits, you will still be eligible for SSDI for the next five years — until your date last insured. But once that five years is up — meaning you pass your DLI — you are no longer eligible for SSDI unless you prove that your condition started before your DLI.

Do all jobs count for work credits?

You only earn a work credit if you make more than a certain income and pay federal taxes on that income. In 2024, you will earn a work credit for every $1,730 of income you have. The income threshold was lower for previous years but you can never earn more than four credits in a single year.

Full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal jobs can all earn you work credits as long as you earn enough and pay taxes. You are less likely to earn credits if you primarily do freelance or gig work, you work for a state government, or you get paid in all cash.

You can see how many work credits you have by creating a mySocialSecurity account on the SSA’s website.

How does the SSA calculate the date last insured?

There are a few steps and technical terms to know with this process, but we'll keep it as simple as was can:

The Social Security Administration determines your date last insured by reviewing your work history and number of work credits, also known as quarters of coverage.

The SSA uses the "20/40 rule" to evaluate if you have at least 20 work credits in a 40-calendar quarter period, which is approximately 10 years of work. Your 40-calendar quarter period ends with the quarter you became disabled.

The SSA will count back 20 covered quarters from when you last worked, and count forward 40 quarters from that date. If you worked full-time, your DLI will usually end up around five years after you stopped working.

In short, when the SSA considers your eligibility for SSDI, it looks at your work credits to make sure you’ve worked at least five out of the last 10 years.

Remember, you won’t be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance unless you have enough credits or covered quarters. You need to have recent credits, too, with a certain number of your total work credits earned in the most recent years leading up to your DLI.

To check your own DLI, create a mySocialSecurity profile on the SSA’s website and look under your earnings history record.

Example of date last insured

Let’s say you have earned enough work credits to be technically eligible for SSDI. You’ve worked five of the last 10 years, and you stopped working in March 2020. Your date last insured would be five years later — March 31, 2025.

As long as you can provide the SSA with medical records showing your disability or health condition started before that date last insured, you are eligible for SSDI benefits.

What happens if my disability onset is after the date last insured?

If your disability didn’t start until after your date last insured, the SSA will likely deny your disability application. In some cases, however, you can prove you were eligible for SSDI at the date of disability onset with medical records. You will need supporting evidence, such as a diagnosis date and treatment history.

What should I do if my benefits were denied because of my DLI?

The Social Security Administration will deny your application if they do not agree with your disability onset date or if your disability began after your DLI.

In either case, you should file an appeal asking the Social Security Administration to reconsider your SSDI claim. As part of the appeal process, you can submit additional medical evidence to help prove exactly when your disability began.

If your DLI continues to be an issue with your application, another option is to apply for Supplemental Security Income. The SSI program is intended for low-income individuals who live with a disabling medical condition, and your work history is not an eligibility factor.

Get help with your application

If the Social Security Administration denies your application because of your date last insured, a disability attorney can help. An experienced lawyer can review your disability case and determine the best next steps. If you decide to file an appeal, your lawyer will help gather the medical evidence you need to prove when your disability started. Atticus can provide advice at no cost and connect you with a Social Security disability lawyer. Get started by taking our two-minute disability quiz, and someone from our team will follow up to learn more information about your case.

---

Related resources:

Everything You Should Know About Disability Benefits (SSDI and SSI)

By Sarah Aitchison

An Easy-to-Follow Guide to Applying for Disability Benefits

By Jackie Jakab