In order to qualify for social security disability insurance benefits, a claimant needs to prove they are medically disabled.

But in addition, the person must have worked long enough and thereby paid payroll taxes long enough to achieve what is known as disability “insured” status.

Typically, this means that the person acquired at least 20 quarters of coverage (from full-time or near full-time work) during the 40 quarters ending with the quarter in which the person became disabled.

Or, to put it more simply, the person must have worked for at least 5 years during the 10 year period ending with the quarter in which he or she be disabled.

But there is also a special rule for workers between the ages of 21 and 31 years of age. Such persons need only have worked for one half of the calendar quarters after attaining age twenty-one up to and including the quarter in which he or she became disabled. But the person needs to have at least six quarters of coverage, or if the number of quarters between the claimant’s 21st birthday and the onset of their disability is less than twelve, they must have six quarters of coverage in during the twelve quarters ending with the quarter in which they became disabled.

See Social Security Ruling (SSR) 69-30.