Hello,
I am writing to ask, what I hope will be a fairly straightforward question? I am 38 and have been diagnosed with several chronic conditions over the last few years: RA - since I was 5, IBS - diagnosed in my early 20s, Social Anxiety and PTS - diagnosed in my early 30s. I have been told by my primary care physician that it might be worth looking into applying for disability benefits, but have read information that doing so could lower future retirement payments. I have not worked outside the home since my child was born six years ago. I still manage to get a lot done (including running the house, homeschooling, community volunteering, beekeeping, growing a significant portion of our family's food, providing a safe place for local children to play and get study help - all free).
But my body systems are ridiculously complicated and I have to be very careful because I do not have many physical reserves since my immune system wastes so much energy attacking itself in so many ways.
Would pursuing disability benefits help or hinder my family as we get older?
My spouse is our sole income earner, and we make it work,so I do not wish to hamstring our retirement earnings by making an ill-informed choice.
Thank you for all of the time you put into answering these questions, it's such a complex field and your insight is greatly appreciated by many.
Regards,
Lynnea

Hi Lynnea,

Actually, it's just the opposite. If you qualify for Social Security disability benefits, both your disability benefit amount and future retirement benefit amount will be based on an average of fewer years of your earnings, thus raising the average and the resulting benefit amount.

Normally, Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's best 35 years of inflation adjusted earnings. However, if the person becomes entitled to disability benefits before age 62, fewer years of earnings are used in the averaging. If a person qualifies for disability benefits at age 38, for example, their benefit amount would be based on their best 13 years of earnings.

In your case, if you don't have any additional earnings and file for Social Security retirement benefits in the future, your benefit amount will be calculated based on a 35 year average of your earnings, even though you didn't have earnings in many or most of those years. The zero earnings years will be a substantial drag on your earnings average, and the resulting benefit amount.

You raised one big red flag in your question, however. In order to be eligible for Social Security disability benefits, you must become disabled within 5 years of when you stop working and paying into Social Security. Specifically, to meet the insured status requirement for disability benefits, you must have 20 calendar quarters (i.e. 5 years) of covered earnings within the 40 calendar quarter (i.e. 10 years) period leading up to the point that you became disabled by Social Security's standards.

You may still qualify for disability benefits, but since you've been out of the work force for 6 years, you will need to establish that your condition became disabling at least a year or more in the past. That can be problematic if you don't have sufficient medical records available to establish the extent of your impairments. All you can do at this point is to file a claim for disability benefits with Social Security, and inform them of all of the doctors and hospitals you've seen about your disabling impairments. With your permission, they will obtain your medical records and make a determination on your eligibility for benefits. If their decision is unfavorable, be sure to consider filing an appeal of the decision. A substantial percentage of unfavorable disability decisions are reversed upon appeal.

Best, Jerry