Those who are collecting Social Security disability benefits due to medical conditions that prevents them from working at a substantial level probably have wondered at least once or twice about what may happen to their benefits once they reach the full Social Security retirement age. The main things they wonder about is will their disability benefits go away at full retirement age and will they see reduced benefits at full retirement age because they have not worked as long as expected?
It is important to know that disability benefits do go away when a person reaches their full retirement age. Full retirement age is different depending on what year you were born. For everyone born between 1943-1954 full retirement age is 66 and for everyone born 1960 and later it is 67. Those born 1955-1959 hit full retirement age at some point between turning 66 and 67.
Although disability benefits go away when someone reaches full retirement age they should not see any reduction in the amount of money they receive because disability benefits are replaced by retirement benefits, which is roughly the equal to disability benefits.
Some people have called our office inquiring if they can receive disability and retirement benefits from Social Security at the same time. The answer to this is no, that would be double dipping and Social Security is not going to pay disability benefits to a person who is thought to have reached full retirement age and should not be in the workforce any longer regardless of what sort of impairments they receive. This would be like a private employer paying for private disability coverage for a worker who has already retired from the company.
To learn more about how Social Security benefits transfer from disability to retirement benefits click here.
