You might be curious about what happens once you reach full retirement age (FRA) if you receive Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) benefits. The good news is that your benefits will convert immediately and, for most individuals, will not change.
If you continue to meet the requirements for disability, your Social Security Disability benefits will remain payable. If you are still disabled, when you reach full retirement age, your retirement benefits will start, and your SSDI benefits will end. In other words, your SSDI benefits become retirement benefits from Social Security.
Keep reading below for more information.
How Can Social Security Disability Be Maintained Until Retirement?
You can continue to receive SSDI benefits until you reach retirement age, at which point the benefits will convert to retirement benefits. To keep your benefits in effect until retirement age, you must take certain steps.
Disability Status
Make sure you visit your doctor frequently. You’ll have to keep track of how your illness keeps you from working. The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) may dispute your disability status during Continuing Disability Reviews if you don’t provide adequate paperwork.
Respond as quickly as possible after receiving a notice regarding a continuing disability review. If you do not answer, you risk losing your benefits.
Work Status
Similarly, inform the SSA if your employment status changes. You must report changes to the SSA if:
● You begin work or stop working.
● Your job’s compensation, responsibilities, or hours have changed.
● You start covering the costs of your work-related disability-related expenses.
Any changes to your health or place of employment can be reported via phone, fax, letter, or in person. You can also express disagreement with a determination via your online Social Security account.
In some circumstances, you can receive benefits if you return to work while receiving SSDI. The SSA considers any month in which you work a trial work month if you earn more than $910. You can continue getting benefits if you have not completed nine trial work months in a rolling 60-month period.
When do SSDI Payments Convert to Retirement Benefits?
The earliest your SSDI benefits could convert to retirement benefits is age 65, assuming you were born before 1937. Your birth year determines when your benefits convert.
Retirement payments based on birth years replace SSDI benefits at the following points:
● 65 years and two months old if born in 1938
● 65 years and 4 months old if born in 1939
● 65 years and 6 months old if born in 1940
● 65 years and eight months old if born in 1941
● 65 years and 10 months old if born in 1942
● 66 years old if born between 1943 and 1954
● 66 years and 2 months old if born in
● 56 years and 4 months old if born in 156
● 66 years and six months old if born in 1957
● 66 years and eight months old if born in 1958
● 66 years and 10 months old if born in 1959
● 67 years old if born in 1960 or later
Unlike SSDI, your Social Security retirement benefits are not capped by your income. Your retirement payments will no longer be based on SSDI regulations.
Can I Raise My Benefits after I Reach the Age of Retirement?
If you get workers’ compensation and SSDI, your benefits could increase. Any municipal benefits from programs like Workers’ Compensation may have decreased your SSDI payout because you most likely did not pay taxes on them.
People who are on SSDI when they hit full retirement age (FRA) do not have this option. The benefits automatically convert to retirement and they cannot delay the SSDI payments.
The good news is that this reduction will terminate when you reach full retirement age, increasing your Social Security payment.
What about Medicare?
Medicare enrollment typically begins around age 65. But when you’re under 65, you are automatically enrolled in Medicare if you have been deemed disabled by SSA for 24 months or more. (If you have been diagnosed with ALS, you can be Medicare eligible earlier, typically during your initial SSDI payment.)
Conclusion
If you’re currently receiving SSDI and nearing retirement age, SSA will automatically process your application for retirement benefits in most cases.
