[kimberlykrause]

My mom was diagnosed with vascular dementia last year. She is a retired school teacher in Texas, aged 63 (TRS does not put into Social Security). For the last 10 years or so since she has been retired from teaching, she has been working for my dad as an office aid. At one point, we got the letter from the Social Security Administration stating she had her 40 quarters, but then last year we got another stating she hadn't met her 40 quarters. My dad's CPA lost the first letter which showed she was eligible to receive Social Security with her 40 quarters, so my dad kept putting into the system until things got cleared up (which happened to be this past April). So, since all this paperwork got messed up initially, she has been diagnosed with dementia and hasn't really worked for about 1 1/2 years, though my dad has been considering her to be on paid-leave and is still paying her social security taxes, etc. My question is: how can we apply for Disability (she is definitely disabled) without messing up her ability to still get Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare? Wouldn't the fact that my dad kept paying SS taxes show that she was working even after she became disabled? Or do they consider medical leave? Can you get Social Security retirement and disability at the same time? Is there a reduction in what she would get since she also gets teacher retirement pay? This is so confusing and we are not sure if we even want to hassle with the disability application since it takes about 2 years to get and by that point she will have reached retirement age of 65 and can start getting her Medicare benefits. Man, oh, man, that was a lot! thanks for your help.....

[Janke]

Does your dad's business have a policy for paying office aides 18 months of paid sick leave or is this a policy just for his wife? Even though he may have paid the FICA/OASDI taxes, I am not so sure that it was legitimate if she didn't do any work for them.

And when she does file for SSDI, SSA will know about the earnings. They are the ones who sent the letter you are referring to. It is doubtful that you can get a copy of that letter from SSA, but SSA will know about the earnings since keeping track of earnings is one of the basic jobs of the Social Security Administration. And since the earnings record has tracked the earnings after onset of disability, SSA will be asking questions. Give honest answers.

Define "mess up" her SS retirement so I know how to answer. It is true that a person cannot get SS disability AND SS retirement at the same time. SSA will pay whichever is financially advantageous and when a person reaches full retirement age, there is no difference anyway.

Start a disability report online. She can also file a claim online, but I would suggest she have an actual interview with an employee, either in person or on the phone and I think in person gets you the most information since she can see the earnings information. You can attend the interview with her and so can your father.

She will need to bring her teacher's retirement award letter as well. There may be a different computation that applies to her called Windfall Elimination Provision.

It doesn't take two years for everyone to qualify for SSDI. 35% of the claims are approved at the initial level and can be as quick as six weeks, if the information provided is thorough from the beginning. Even if it takes two years to get approved, that is two years of benefits that she might not have gotten had she waited for full retirement age.

Read everything you think applies at socialsecurity.gov. Make a list of questions. Your parents are a little late in starting their retirement planning already. Start a disability report online. File a claim. This month. In person.