Larry,

Good afternoon sir, I hope this email finds you well. I stumbled across your advice data from 2015 on PBS when searching for information for my father, whom is a 100% P&T Vietnam veteran. He is turning 75 this October and my mother (his wife) turned 73 in June. Dad asked me to look into social security disability benefits as he had not thought on it before. I did and seem to have found that all this time he could have been receiving disability benefits from the SSA and did not know it. He was rated 40% about 40 years ago when working (after leaving the service) and the rating increased as his health declined, he retired from the department of defense in 2001, and it increased to 60% right around 2003. It was change to 100% in 2012.

I am sending he and my mom by the social security office tomorrow to inquire on benefits, is there anything other than his P&T data or information they should be ready with before they get there. My dad doesn't get around very well and I didn't want to have them make a wasted trip, the SSA office is about an hour from where they live.

Thank-you sir for your time, hope your week ends well.

Sara

Hi Sara,

If your father is now age 74, there is likely no way for him to claim disability benefits. Social Security does not pay disability benefits to people after they reach full retirement age (FRA). If a person qualifies for disability benefits before FRA, their benefits convert to regular retirement benefits when they reach FRA.

Social Security would need to have determined that your father was unable to work prior to reaching FRA in order for him to have been eligible for disability benefits, and he could not have been doing substantial gainful work and still have been eligible for disability benefits. So, it sounds questionable as to whether or not your father could have been eligible for disability benefits even if he had filed timely. Social Security disability applications can only be retroactive for up to 12 months, so it almost certainly wouldn't do any good for your father to file for Social Security disability benefits now.

I'm assuming that your parents have already filed for regular Social Security retirement benefits, but if not they would obviously want to do that if one or both of them have enough work credits.

Best, Jerry