Hi Larry, our daughter gets SSI (she is 28 but became disabled before age 22). My wife 62 years old has taken care of her since birth, now she is getting ready to file for retirement. On the application it asks if you have children who became disabled before age 22 (yes). will this trigger automatically an application for CDB benefits for our daughter? We rather keep as is since CDB (50% of her benefit of approx. $900) is less than the SSI our daughter is getting. Don't want to upset anything i.e. Medicare. Appreciate your help!

Hi,

SSI (Supplemental Security Income) is a needs based benefit intended for people who have little or no other means of support. As a result, one of the conditions for SSI eligibility is that you must file for any other benefits to which you may be entitled, such as Social Security.

If your daughter would qualify for Social Security childhood disability benefits (CDB) and your wife doesn't list her on her application then that would likely be considered as fraudulent. And regardless of that, if your daughter's CDB benefit rate would be lower than her SSI rate then the likely outcome would be that her SSI will simply be reduced by the amount of her CDB benefit. In other words, she'd probably continue to receive at least the same total amount monthly and possibly a little more. If your daughter receives Medicaid, that will also likely continue at least for as long as she still qualifies for SSI. And, your daughter would likely qualify for Medicare after 24 months of entitlement to CDB benefits.

You and your wife may want to strongly consider using our maximization software before she files to compare all of your various filing options in order to determine the strategy that would likely work out best for your family.

Best, Jerry