Who Qualifies for Social Security Benefits?
- To qualify for Social Security benefits at some point in the future, you have to earn Social Security credits. These credits are earned when you work in a job that pays into the Social Security system. These credits can be accumulated at any point during your working career and do not have to be earned consecutively. To be eligible to receive Social Security benefits, you have to have 40 credits on your record. This takes about 10 years of working to get to this number.
- When choosing the proper time to take your Social Security benefits, you may want to take retirement early. With the Social Security system, you can start taking benefits as early as the age of 62. When you do this, it is known as taking early retirement benefits. The total amount of your payments will be lower than if you waited until full retirement age, according to the rules of the Social Security system. This means that you have to decide if you want a larger paycheck for fewer years or a smaller paycheck for more years.
- If you decide to work until you are at the full retirement age according to Social Security, you can receive your maximum monthly benefit from the system. The age that is considered to be full retirement used to be 65. If you were born prior to 1943, you can retire at the age of 65 and get full benefits. After that, the age is slowly transitioning up to a maximum of 67. For example, if you were born after 1960, your full retirement age is 67.
- Besides paying you a monthly payment, the Social Security Administration can also provide benefits for your family members, in some cases. If you are married and your spouse is over the age of 62, she can receive payments from the Social Security Administration as well. This increases the total amount of money that you can bring in from the system. If you care for children in your own home, your kids can receive benefits from the Social Security Administration as well.