Hello... my wife of almost a year is 42, I'm about to turn 45. I currently work and have since I was 15 so I have plenty of work credits to qulify for disability if I needed to. My wife hasn't worked in several years...she was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in 2014 and it's only been getting worse. She's cleaned houses here and there, but nothing to report to taxes. So she wanted to finally file for SSDI and they told her she didn't have enough work credits and I make too much for her to file for SSI. We currently have my two children that are 7 and 11 and her two children 14, and 16 living with us. We get no support from either of their other parents. Is there any way possible for my wife to file for SSDI under my available benefits while I still work? It doesn't seem fair she hasn't een able to work fully the last few years and didn't want to use the system so held out as long she could and now when she needs it it's not available. Now we have 4 kids to deal with on one income. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi,

I'm sorry but there is no way that your wife could qualify for disability benefits based on your earnings history, at least while you're still living. Social Security disability benefits can be paid to widows and surviving divorced spouses on the record of a deceased spouse, but not to spouses or divorced spouses on the record of a living spouse.

In order for your wife to qualify for Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) on her own work record she would need to have earned at least 20 Social Security quarters of coverage (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/QC.html) within the 40 calendar quarter period ending with the onset of her disability. In simpler terms, that means she would need to have worked and paid into Social Security long enough to earn the equivalent of at least 5 years of work credits within the 10 years leading up to the time she became disabled. If your wife's condition was bad enough to be considered disabling in 2014, that would mean she could potentially qualify for SSDI if she had at least 5 years worth of Social Security work credits during the period 2004-2014 and as long as she didn't do any substantial gainful activity (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.06/handbook-0603.html) after 2014. The current substantial gainful activity guideline is work for earnings that average more than $1180 per month.

I don't have enough information about your wife's earnings history to know if SSDI eligibility is at all possible in her case, but if she hasn't already done so she might want to go ahead and file a claim for SSDI in order to get a formal determination from Social Security.

Best, Jerry