Ask Larry

Will My Benefits Decrease If I Switch From Disability To Retirement Benefits At Age 62?

I'm collecting ssdi and 61yrs old if I retire at 62 will my benefits decrease? If I take one of my pensions will that decrease my ssdi benefit. Things are real hard just collecting SSDI.

Hi,

If you opted to switch to reduced retirement benefits at age 62, your benefit rate would likely be reduced by roughly 26%. There's likely no reason to do that unless you have eligible family members who could receive a higher benefit rate if you were receiving retirement benefits rather than disability benefits, or if your disability benefit rate is being reduced due to receipt of worker's compensation benefits.

Other pensions don't necessarily cause a decrease in Social Security benefits unless the other pension is based on your work that was exempt from Social Security taxes. For more information on the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), refer to this Social Security publication: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Aug 23 2017 - 7:36am
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