my mom receives railroad and va benefits from dad. she worked as well. can she collect ss benefits under her name and not have other benefits effected?

Hi,

No. Your mother's Railroad Retirement (RR) benefit consists of 2 tiers. Tier 1 is a substitute for Social Security (SS), and if your mother files for SS benefits her tier 1 RR benefits will be offset dollar for dollar by the amount of her SS benefit. Therefore, your mother would likely only want to file for SS benefits if her benefit rate would be higher than her tier 1 RR rate. Unless you already have a record of your mother's tier 1 RR rate, she would likely need to contact the Railroad Retirement Board to determine her tier 1 amount. She should be able to find out her potential SS rate either by contacting Social Security or by using our software.

I'm not that familiar with VA benefits, so I can't tell you whether or not filing for SS benefits might have any effect on your mother's VA benefits.

Best, Jerry