If You Are 62, Should You File For Social Security or Social Security Disability?

You should file for Social Security retirement if you are sixty-two years old, and your work does not interfere with your ability to receive a benefit. However, if are not working due to a medical and/or mental impairment at the age of sixty-two, you may wish to consider filing for Social Security disability at the time you file for your Social Security retirement. Yes, you can file for both retirement and disability at the same time.

You may wonder how that would be beneficial to you? Well, if you are unable to work due to your impairment or impairments, you probably could use some money coming into your household. Social Security allows an individual to draw their Social Security retirement benefit while they wait for a decision as to their disabled status.

When you file for Social Security retirement at the age of sixty-two, you are going to receive a reduced benefit for early retirement. This benefit reduction is a permanent reduction that will not change to a higher benefit at your full retirement. However, if you file for disability at the same time you file for your early retirement and are deemed to be disabled by Social Security, your reduction for early retirement will be lessened.

What do I mean by “lessened”? Social Security may set your medical onset to the date you became disabled to work, and if that date plus the five month Social Security disability waiting period is prior to your month of entitlement to retirement benefits you will receive no reduction to your benefit.

However, if your disability entitlement date is longer than the five month disability retirement, Social Security will only reduce your benefit by the number of months you received retirement benefits prior to your entitlement to disability benefits. While this would not allow you to receive a benefit equal to your full retirement benefit, it will increase your reduced retirement benefit amount.


Of course you always have to option of not filing for a reduced retirement benefit while you wait for your disability decision. It really depends upon your own financial needs at the time you file for a Social Security benefit.







For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center















Additional Resources

Social Security Disability Claim Status
Social Security Disability, Medical Conditions and Getting Approved
Social Security Disability--Permanent Disability
SSDI Decision, SSI Decison - How long does it take?

Social Security Medical Exam - the purpose

If you apply for social security disability or SSI disability benefits, there is a fairly good chance you will be scheduled to go to a medical exam. Typically, this happens when an individual who applies for disability has not been seen by a doctor in recent weeks or months.

Should you be concerned if you are notified by mail that you will have to go to a social security medical exam? Not at all. Such exams are really only for the purpose of obtaining recent medical evidence that will, in essence, allow the social security administration to close a case, i.e. to make a decision on a claim.

The following article provides information about social security medical exams, but here are a few initial points to keep in mind:

1. The exam will not be conducted by a doctor who works for the social security administration. Instead, it will be conducted by a doctor who has agreed to perform such exams, but, otherwise, is engaged in private practice.

2. The exam will usually last less than thirty minutes, and sometimes as little as ten minutes.

3. The exam will seldom ever provide the basis for either an approval or a denial of a disability case. In most instances, it is simply a procedural formality to go through when an applicant has not been to a doctor recently.


Additional information: Social Security Disability Claims and Medical Exams







For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center

Making a Request for a Disability Hearing

Most applicants for Social Security Disability or SSI disability benefits will be in the position of having to request a disability hearing at some point. This is simply due to the fact that most claimants will be denied for disability benefits at the first step in the process (filing an application for benefits) and will also be denied at the second step in the process (filing a request for reconsideration).

Making a request for a hearing is fairly simply. It simply involves contacting the social security office following the receipt of a reconsideration denial and requesting the appeal, at which point the social security office will mail out the appropriate forms.

What is a reconsideration? Reconsideration (actually known as a request for reconsideration) is the first appeal that a claimant can file for and this becomes available after a disability application has been denied. Reconsiderations are handled identically to disability applications. Since they are, though, it should come as no surprise that most reconsiderations are turned down as well. In fact, in most states, well more than half of all reconsideration appeals are turned down.

Because reconsiderations are turned with such great frequency, most claimants will find it necessary to file their second appeal, which is a request for a disability hearing. Fortunately, more than half of all individuals who go to hearings have their cases approved and inevitably receive benefits.

Tip: if you have representation at the time your reconsideration is denied, you may have your disability attorney request your hearing for you. And if you do not have representation at this time, you may wish to consider locating a representative since a representative will be useful in preparing a case for a hearing, including gathering medical record updates and statements from physicians that support a claimant's case for benefits.

Additional information: Notes on the Request for a Disability Hearing







For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center

What Happened to the Social Security Lockbox?

Remember the Social Security Lockbox?

It was the talk of the town about eight years ago, before Hurricane Katrina and the War on Terror. The purpose of the lockbox was to secure that there would be future funds for recipients of Social Security.

During the 109th Congress, from January 3, 2005 until January 3, 2007, not a single member of Congress was signed onto lockbox legislation.

Fortunately, 20 members have already signed on to the 110th Congress and are showing their support. Unfortunately, the budget is in a deficit and if they want to pay back the IOU’s they are going to have to either raise the retirement age, reduce benefits or raise taxes.

Will this help future generations in getting the Social Security benefits and social security disability benefits they are paying in for now? Not likely.

The Trustees say that the Social Security Trust Fund is expected to be in deficit by 2017. As if that isn’t enough, they also expect the Social Security Trust Fund to be bankrupt by 2041.







For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center














Additional Resources

Some children may be eligible to receive disability benefits
Social Security considers children
Processing a Social Security disability to be approved
Social security disability SSI stopped
Approving a social security disability claim
Receive social security disability after approved