I am submitting this on behalf of my brother who is deemed disabled according to Social Security guidelines. He worked for the state of Massachusetts the 22 and a half years. He only has a state pension, he's been tonight to receive any kind of SSI or SSDI until he takes his state pension. He is he is under 50. If htakes a lump sum he'll take a 20% hit for for withdrawing early and then another 10% because he'll have to file taxes as income. If he takes a monthly State Pension because he has 22 years of service can he still collect SSI for the difference?

Hi,

If your brother hasn't paid Social Security taxes for the past 22 years, he almost certainly won't qualify for Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits. In order to be eligible for Social Security disability benefits, he would need to have paid Social Security taxes for at least 5 of the 10 years leading up to his disability (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/insured.html).

However, if your brother did pay Social Security taxes on his state earnings, then his state pension wouldn't affect his SSDI regardless of whether he takes a monthly pension or a lump sum.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a needs based benefit. In addition to being disabled, your brother would need to meet the income and resource limits to qualify for SSI payments. The resource limit for an individual, excluding their home and a car, is $2000. If a person is under the resource limit and their only income is a pension, SSI could potentially supplement their income up to a total of roughly $755 per month. If the pension is more than that, though, they would not be eligible for any SSI. For more information on SSI, refer to Social Security's website: https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/.

Best, Jerry