How many credits do I need to be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance?

In most cases, you must have earned at least 20 credits in the ten year period immediately before your disability began to be eligible for SSDI benefits. There are special rules for individuals under age 31. For those under the age of 24, you may be eligible if you earned six credits in the three year period immediately preceding the time you became disabled. For those between aged 24 and 31, you need to have been working half the time between age 21 and when your disability began.  The amount of work credits you have, and when they stopped, will be what the Social Security Administration uses to calculate your Date Last Insured for benefits, a date which you must be found disabled by.