If brother is receiving retirement benefits. Has since had four major strokes and now bed bound. Does he qualify for SSI now? Also will he now qualify for Medicaid as he did not before these strokes?. Thanks.

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your brother's health problems. You say that he's receiving retirement benefits, but I'm not sure if you mean Social Security retirement benefits or some other type of retirement benefit. If your brother is under full retirement age (FRA), then it sounds like he might qualify for Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits if he meets the insured status requirement. But, if your brother is FRA or older and he's already drawing his Social Security retirement benefits, then becoming disabled wouldn't entitle him to a higher benefit rate.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a needs based benefit administered by Social Security. If your brother is disabled or age 65 or older he could potentially qualify for SSI if his income and resources are low enough to qualify. To see if he might be eligible, you might want to try using the following SSI screening tool: https://ssabest.benefits.gov/.

My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, so I can't tell you whether or not your brother could qualify for Medicaid. You'll probably need to check with the agency that administers those benefits.

Best, Jerry