Hi, I have a brother who was born in 1964. He worked on and off, mostly off, until age 32, which included a short time as a police officer for a wealthy town. At age 32 he decided working wasn't for him and attempted to get social security disability retirement for a non-existent back injury - and was denied by social security. He did not appeal. Instead he stopped working entirely. He was granted a very small pension payment monthly in exchange for permanent retirement as a police officer for that town. Receiving only that meager income each month our parents allowed him to leave his wife and young children to return to their home to live in their basement where he has remained for the past 23 years, smoking, drinking, popping Xanax all day and watching television. He does not go out at all. His food is prepared by his mother. His father goes to buy his cigarettes and anything else he might need or want so that he does not have to leave the home. He is now age 55 and our father has since passed away. He continues to live in the home with our mother now, and she has seen her lawyer to have papers drawn up to make certain my brother receives her house upon her death so he can continue to live there for as long as he wishes. She claims he will be entitled to receive social security retirement benefits once he reaches his normal retirement age whether he has worked since age 32 or not. He also has a nice van that his father GAVE to him which sits in the driveway and is only started up every so often to keep it running. Can it be possible that this lazy freeloader who did not even attend his father's funeral and has no intention of attending his mother's funeral when it comes either, can actually receive social security retirement benefits even though he hasn't worked or made any attempt to work since age 32 and laughs at us and calls us suckers because we did work all of our lives to earn the right to social security and Medicare/Medicaid?

Hi,

Your brother would be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62 as long as he has at least 40 quarters (i.e. 10 years) of Social Security coverage (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/QC.html). However, based on your description of events it sounds like your brother's Social Security benefit rate would be very low. Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's highest 35 years of Social Security covered earnings, and if your brother only had 10 years with Social Security covered earnings then 25 zero earnings years would be included in the average on which his benefit rate is based. In other words, his total earnings would be divided by 35 years regardless of how many years he actually worked. That would obviously drastically reduce his average annual earnings and his resulting Social Security benefit rate.

Assuming that your brother is a U.S. citizen he will also qualify for Medicare coverage at age 65. And, if he has at least 40 quarters of coverage his Part A Medicare would be premium free. Medicaid, on the other hand, is a needs based program that's administered by the states, so I don't know whether or not your brother could qualify for benefits from that program.

Best, Jerry