i am 64 years old & on Social Security Disability , my brother says i can get Social Security Retirement benefits also , the only thing i can find is that i can start my Social Security as early as 62, I'm 64 and disability does not pay enough to buy essentials' and i miss out on good food and some prescriptions monthly ! any help would be appreciated, please reply leonard

Hi Leonard. No, you can't collect both Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits and Social Security retirement benefits at the same time. SSDI and retirement benefits are basically the same benefit, but qualifying for SSDI simply allows you to draw your unreduced full retirement age (FRA) benefit rate early. That's why the benefit rate doesn't change when a person reaches FRA and their SSDI benefits automatically convert to retirement benefits.

If you apply for Social Security retirement benefits while collecting SSDI, you must choose to receive one or the other benefit. You can't get both. And, if you choose to start drawing retirement benefits at age 64 instead of your SSDI, you'll likely just be taking a roughly 17% cut in your benefit rate.

The only people who receive SSDI who may want to consider voluntarily switching to Social Security retirement benefits prior to FRA are people whose SSDI rate is being offset due to receipt of worker's compensation or public disability benefits, or people whose eligible family members could receive higher auxiliary benefits if the worker was receiving retirement benefits instead of disability benefits. Otherwise, their best strategy is virtually always to simply wait until FRA at which time their SSDI benefits automatically convert to Social Security retirement benefits at the same benefit rate.

Best, Jerry