Social Security’s disability and retirement programs are two different funds, but on occasion people can actually apply for both programs at the same time.
For this to occur, a Social Security disability applicant must be at least 62 years of age. This is the age in which workers who have paid into Social Security sufficiently can begin to collect reduced retirement payments. At the same time, they can also be going through a disability claim.
Most people who decide to collect early retirement payments from Social Security do it out of necessity. Most people, who can afford to wait until full retirement age, which is dependent on the year you were born, do so, so they don’t have to pay a penalty for collecting early retirement payments.
Those who begin receiving retirement payments at age 62 are collecting about 80 percent of what their full retirement amount would be if they waited. This is the penalty people pay for collecting early. It should be known that those who begin collecting early will never receive their full retirement amount even when they reach the full retirement age.
For disability applicants who are approaching age 62, collecting early retirement payments may seem less risky because if they are found disabled during a time they were collecting early retirement pay, they will be reimbursed for the penalty they are paying.
The Social Security disability process can be a difficult one to understand, especially how it relates to early retirement payments. If you need more clarification about how you may be impacted, you should contact the Social Security Administration www.ssa.gov or contact a Social Security disability attorney or representative. A more in-depth explanation of how a disability case interacts with someone collecting early retirement payments can be found here.
