My friend took early retirement (62). He recently became ill which messed with his mind. The DRs agree he is disabled. Is he eligible for disability?

Hi,

I can't tell you whether or not your friend would be approved for Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits, but it sounds like he should probably apply and find out. To be eligible, your friend must meet the insured status requirement for SSDI and be determined to be unable to work due to a medical impairment.

To be insured for SSDI your friend would need to have at least 20 quarters of Social Security covered work within the 40 quarter period (i.e. basically 5 years of work in the 10 year period) leading up to when he became disabled. The basic medical requirement for SSDI is that the person needs to be unable to do any type of substantial gainful work as the result of a physical or mental impairment(s). Social Security will use your friend's medical records to make their determination, but they won't simply accept his doctor's conclusion that he is disabled. Being 'disabled' means different things to different people, so Social Security must document that a person meets the definition of disability per Social Security regulations.

If your friend does qualify for SSDI, he won't get both SSDI and regular Social Security retirement benefits. What would happen instead would be that his benefit rate would be recalculated to remove the reduction for age that was applied to his benefit rate for any months that he qualifies for disability benefits.

For example, say Bill took Social Security benefits at age 62. Bill's full retirement age rate (PIA) is $1000, but his reduced age 62 rate is $741. If Bill subsequently qualifies for SSDI when he turns age 63, his benefit rate would be adjusted to $922. In other words, Bill's adjusted benefit rate would only be reduced for the 12 months that he drew reduced retirement benefits before qualifying for SSDI.

Best, Jerry