A claimant comes into the office. She is working and is approaching her 62nd
birthday. The claimant looks healthy,
while in fact she is suffering stage four breast cancer. She wants to retire and try to get social
security disability. What is she to do?
Her appearance - and question, brings up the subject of the
relationship between social security disability (SSDI, DIB) and social security
retirement. In the majority of cases, you
cannot collect both i.e. social
security disability payments are payable to a worker who is unable to be
competitively employed in the national economy because of a disability. Retirement benefits are for workers (healthy
or not) who reach a certain age (depending on their birthday[1])
and decide to apply for retirement benefits.
There is an exception to the general rule that you cannot
collect both benefits. That exception
applies to a worker who takes early retirement i.e. before age 66 years (using
the above date of birth) and then applies for and qualifies for disability
benefits.
Social security disability benefits pay the disabled worker
a benefit that approximates what she would have received at full
retirement. SSDI could be considered as
a bridge benefit, benefiting a claimant too young to retire, but disabled. It would be a worker who has worked and
earned benefits from the social security system. Even though too young for retirement if
sufficiently disabled she can get disability benefits that will bridge the
period of time from full impairment to full retirement age.
There is some risk to the claimant. The risk is that by applying for early
retirement, she is subject to a permanent reduction in retirement benefits, if
she is not found disabled. In this
example, since the claimant retired at age 62, she will experience
approximately a 25% reduction in retirement benefits. This will be a permanent reduction, i.e. at
age 66 her full retirement benefit will be 25% less than if she had retired at
age 66 years.
If social security finds that the claimant is disabled
before full retirement age, here at age 62, social security will make up the
difference between the early retirement payments and disability payments for
the period of time of the overlap of benefits - up to age 66 years.
If as in this case, early retirement and disability overlap
for the full period, disability benefits continue to full retirement with full
retirement payments. If the claimant took
early retirement on May 1, XXXX and is found disabled May 1, XXXX the five
month waiting period means the first disability payments begin in November XXXX. When the claimant reaches age 66, she will
receive 5 months of reduction in her retirement payments.
This is a complex
area of the law. It involves retirement
issues, medical issues, and financial issues.
If you are in a situation that puts this in question, you need to speak
to a financial expert and an experienced attorney working in the area of the
law.
Nothing in this blog is intended to establish or create an
attorney client relationship. The blog
is conversational and not intended to be taken as legal advice. If any issue in
this blog is important to your situation, you need to speak with an attorney
and/or a financial specialist.
[1] In the case of a worker born in 1949, the minimum age
to retire is 62 years of age, full retirement age is 66 etc.
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