The process involved in obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance is often long and arduous, but if the U.S. Social Security Administration does approve your application, you may come to depend on these monthly paychecks. If you are a recipient of SSDI and are also closing in on retirement age, you may question what happens to your SSDI benefits once you get there.
According to AOL, reaching the full age of retirement, which is either 66 or 67, depending on your birthdate, means you are no longer going to receive SSDI benefits. However, you should not panic or worry too much about having to adjust your lifestyle.
What happens when your reach full retirement age
Rather than “lose” your SSDI benefit checks, you instead start receiving traditional Social Security checks once you reach full retirement age. In other words, the payments you were receiving convert to a different form of payments. Yet, you should not see much of a change in terms of the amount you take home each month.
What happens when you take retirement benefits early
Americans have the option of collecting Social Security retirement benefits starting at age 62. However, those who do so receive less than they would have had they waited until they reached full retirement age. For this reason, it may not make any financial sense for you to take retirement benefits early if you are a recipient of SSDI. Instead, doing so may actually reduce the amount you receive each month.
Ultimately, having your checks transition over from SSDI payments to retirement benefits should not matter because it is not going to have much of an impact on the amount you take home.
