SSDI, and I am so confused.

[SabrinaS629941]

I am totally disabled as a result of my military service.  I recieve SSDI, and have been since 2006.  Currently I am 55 years old and so is my ex husband, we were married for 11 years.

1.  Is Deemed Filing applicable to my current benefit payment, as he is not FRA; I am not collecting retirement pay but instead decreased allowance as a result of my age at time of approval.

2.  I am not certain if his account was linked to mine at time of application, if it were wouldn't his income data reflect on my Social Security income verification.  It only reflects my personal employment, contrabutions, years employed, etc.  He is not documented in any fashion.

3.  After researching my situation thru published resources, it seems to me that my SSDI payments should be incorperating both mine and his incomes as Ex Spousal benefits.  My understanding is that since I am disabled and on SSDI that I am infact entitled to his higher income bracket for payment calculation purposes.  I only currently qualify for the minimum SSDI allowance.

Can anyone out there help me muddle thru this.

Thank you to any and all that dare to venture into this rabbit hole.

Sabrina

[GailL1]

@SabrinaS629941 

1.  Being a SSDI beneficiary, you are receiving YOUR FULL Benefit based on your own work record - this is the case no matter what age you became disabled as long as you had the required work credits.  So you, based on your work record and your disability, are receiving the highest amount of SSDI benefits that you can get.

If you stayed on this same benefit, at your FRA, the benefit would not get larger but the name of your benefit would change from SSDI to SSOA (Old Age = Retirement).  So if you are receiving SSDI benefits, it has NOT been reduced because of your age.  

Your husband has to be retired in the SS program in order for you to file for Spousal Benefits.  

2.  His SS file does not affect YOUR benefit at all - at least right now since you are on SSDI.  

Now when he decides to retire under the SS system - then you could check to see what your Spousal benefits would be under his record.  If the Spousal benefits are higher than your own benefit (SSDI or SS OA) then you would get an amount equal to the higher amount.  You don’t get both - you get a blended benefit that equals the higher amount.

Spousal benefits are normally 50% of the primary insurance beneficiary’s benefit - both would be adjusted for filing for them at an earlier age than FRA.

At the time he is able to retire ( 62 or older ) and his own work record benefit can be calculated,  you both could go to the local SSA office and they could run the Spousal benefit numbers for you to see if this would be higher than your own work record benefit.

His work record and your work record aren’t tied together at all - it is just the numbers that count towards the computation of the PIA (primary insurance amount) and of course, proof of marriage and length.

3.  This last item in your post confuses me - are you his spouse or EX-spouse?

Yes, it does make a difference.  

The other thing that would make a difference is the type of disability that you are receiving - if it is SSDI, based on your own work record, then my comments here are correct.

However, if you are receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income), which isn’t tied to your work record but is a general welfare program administered by the SSA for those who are blind, aged, disabled who don’t have enough work credits to only receive SSDI - The SSI full payment in 2023 is $ 914 a month.  

I have tried to answer your post as good as I can but it is somewhat confusing in certain areas.  Let me know if you have further questions.