Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide more than half of her SSDI amount support?

akatsnel — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 05:35:20 GMT

She is 27 and never worked. All these years I could not claim her as dependent until this year.

Re: Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide mo...

Vanessa A — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 15:42:18 GMT

If your child is totally and permanently disabled, her age does not matter, she can still be considered a qualifying child if she lives with you for more than 6 months of the year and meets the rest of the criteria to be a qualifying child.

As a qualifying child, they cannot provide more than half of their own support. The parents do not have to provide more than half of her support, she just cannot provide more than half of it. Support includes, food, housing, insurance, transportation, medical needs, etc. Here is a worksheet to determine if she does provided more than half of her own support. If you did not claim her in previous years, it is possible that you could go back and amend your return if she otherwise qualifies as your dependent.

The following criteria must be met to claim someone as a qualifying child:

Your child (including adopted and foster children), your sibling, or a descendent of any of them.
Age 18 or younger at the end of the tax year OR under 24 (and younger than you and your spouse) if they are a full-time student or totally and permanently disabled
Lived with you for more than 6 months during the tax year
They did not provide more than half of their own support
They did not file a joint return, unless it was to claim a refund

If she did qualify as a dependent in previous years and you did not claim her, you can go back and Amend Your Returns for the past 3 years to claim her as a dependent.

If she DOES provide more than half of her support, then you would need to go back through the answers on your return and double check your answers. If she is not able to be claimed as a dependent, then it is best to delete her from your return.

Re: Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide mo...

akatsnel — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:34:44 GMT

Thank you for your reply! I finally found out why I was stuck. There was an option I did not check, "Paid for more than half of their living expenses and other support ". That explained why I did not have problems in previous years. Your input that the dependent can't support herself more than half was useful. I'll keep this in mind for the next year and will talk to a tax adviser. Thanks again and have a good one! Akatsnel.

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Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide more than half of her SSDI amount support?

Re: Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide mo...

Re: Why is my disabled child who has SSDI considered as dependent if her parents don't provide mo...