SLEDGE: When does disability turn into Social Security?

Ned Sledge is a Social Security Public Affairs Specialist in Richmond. Questions about Social Security issues may be directed to him by e-mailing .
Published: October 8, 2008

Q: I am on total disability and I am 59 years old. I would like to know when at what age this turns over to Social Security? And why do I not get a yearly statement? — Thanks, Nellie
A: Let me give you the quick answers first. (1) 66. (2) They don’t send the annual statement to folks who are currently receiving benefits.
Now to go a little deeper. Social Security benefits are paid out of two trust funds: the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. When a person who is receiving disability benefits reaches their full retirement age — for you, who are now 59, that would be age 66 — SSA stops paying them from the DI trust fund and switches them to the OASI trust fund. The money amount is the same — think of this as a bookkeeping issue. And because you’ll then be getting full Retirement benefits based on age rather than disability benefits based on your medical condition, your disability will no longer be the basis for your entitlement. This means no more periodic re-evaluations to be sure you still meet the definition of disability and no more restrictions on earnings should you feel well enough to try to work.
By the way, both retirement benefits and disability benefits are Social Security benefits. This is a common area of misunderstanding. Social Security pays many different types of benefits, retirement and disability being perhaps the most common, but the thing they all have in common is that they’re all Social Security benefits, based on the earnings of a number holder who worked long enough to meet the requirements for entitlement. 
As for the Social Security statement, SSA sends these out each year to all Social Security number holders with earnings on their records from the time they turn 25 up until they begin to receive benefits. They stop sending them once a person becomes entitled to benefits — which explains why you, a disability beneficiary, haven’t been receiving one.