Adjustment of Disabled Wage Earners’ Benefits at Full Retirement Age
May 22, 2013
Social Security Act contains two provisions that affect the calculation of monthly benefits for individuals who are entitled to both retirement and disability benefits before they reach full retirement age, or FRA. </p>
The first provision allows a disabled beneficiary to elect a reduced retirement benefit at age 62 to avoid workers’ compensation or public disability benefits offset. In these instances, the beneficiary is simultaneously entitled to disability and reduced retirement benefits. When the beneficiary attains FRA, the benefit reduction must be eliminated for any months of simultaneous entitlement to disability benefits. The second provision concerns individuals who elect reduced retirement benefits before they become entitled to disability benefits. In these instances, the disability benefit must be reduced for the months the individual was entitled to reduced retirement benefits. In this audit, our goal was to determine whether SSA accurately made these types of benefit adjustments.