Can You Get Social Security Retirement Benefits and SSDI?

Can I collect Social Security retirement and disability benefits at the same time

Listen to this article 0.00 0.00 No. If you are , Social Security will pay you whichever is higher. In most cases, if you're already getting (SSDI), you're better off sticking with that rather than , which is available starting at age 62. Here's why: Regardless of your age when you start collecting SSDI, you receive what you would get if you claimed benefits at (FRA) — the age at which you are entitled to 100 percent of the benefit calculated from your average monthly earnings. (FRA is 66 and 4 months for people born in 1956 and is gradually rising to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.) If you turn 62 in 2022, you’re of that full retirement benefit, so your SSDI benefit will probably be higher. When you reach FRA, the disability benefit , and you’ll get the same monthly amount you’ve been getting. A possible exception arises if, along with SSDI, you are collecting or are drawing a “public disability benefit” from a government job at which you didn’t pay . These could to the point where you might be better off switching to the reduced retirement benefit at 62.

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Your full retirement benefit is in your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for historical wage trends. Since you may have worked fewer than 35 years when you claimed disability benefits, the is different: Your full benefit is derived from your adjusted monthly average income from age 21 until the year you became disabled. Updated March 7, 2022

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