To be "fully insured", a person must have contributed at least 38 quarters of taxable wages to the Social Security program. Since there are 4 quarters in a year, this means that a person must have worked at least 9 years and 6 months to qualify as "fully insured".
To qualify as "currently insured", a person must have contributed into the Social Security program at least 8 quarters of taxable wages in the previous 13 quarters before becoming entitled to receive benefits. This means that within the three years and three months prior to applying or becoming entitled to receive benefits, a person worked at least two years.
To qualify as "permanently insured", a person must have contributed at least 120 quarters of taxable wages into the Social Security program. This means that a person must have worked at least 30 years to be "permanently insured".
The Social Security Administration offers five types of social security benefits to eligible individuals.
Click on any of the benefits below for more information:
To be eligible for retirement or old age insurance benefits, a person must be fully insured (38qtrs.) and has attained the age of Sixty (60) years.
To apply, please fill out an Application for Retirement Insurance Benefits and submit it along with the required documents:
A person who is unable to engage in any substantial gainful employment for at least 12 months because of a mental or physical impairment can apply for disability insurance benefits. A person must also be Fully Insured AND Currently Insured OR Permanently Insured.
To apply, please fill out an Application for Disability Insurance Benefits and submit it along with the required documents:
Dependent children of deceased wage earners are eligible to receive survivor insurance benefits if the wage earner was fully insured or currently insured.
They must also meet the following requirements:
To apply for Disabled Dependent Child Benet, please fill out an Application for Survivor Disabled Child Insurance Benefits and submit it along with the required documents:
To apply for Dependent Child Benefit, please fill out an Application for Survivor Insurance Benefits and submit it along with the required documents:
To be eligible for survivor's insurance benefits, an applicant's deceased spouse must have been fully insured or currently insured at the time of death.
To apply, please fill out an Application for Survivor Insurance Benefit and submit it along with the required documents:
To be eligible for this one-time payment of Survivor Insurance benefit, the deceased wage earner must have been fully insured or currently insured at the time of death. Lump Sum Benefit is paid in the following order:
To apply, please fill out an Application for Lump Sum Insurance Benefit and submit it with the required documents.
If you are the Spouse of the deceased, the following documents must accompany the application:
If you are not the Spouse of the deceased, you must establish your right to the Lump-Sum Payment as the survivor, surviving heirs, or estate. The following documents must accompany the application:
The most recent change to the Social Security Act does allow a beneficiary to receive two types of benefits, i.e.: Surviving Spouse and Retirement Insurance benefit and or Surviving Spouse and Disability Insurance benefit. So surviving spouse insurance beneficiaries who are 60 years old may receive retirement benefits also if they qualify; or if surviving spouse is under the age of sixty (60) years, he/she may be eligible for the disability insurance benefit.
A widow or widower under the age of 60 and unmarried, the maximum monthly benefit is 60% of the deceased spouse basic benefit at the time of death. However, if the widow or widower remarries then the surviving spouse benefit will terminate. A widow or widower who remain unmarried after the age of 60 is eligible for 100% of spouse basic benefit at the time of death. A widow or widower who is at least sixty (60) years old may re-marry and continue to receive his or her monthly amount of benefit at 60% of available benefit under deceased wage earner's covered earnings, but may not receive more than one surviving spouse's insurance benefit.