Can I see what my Social Security retirement benefit would have been if I hadn't claimed SSDI?

When SSDI converts to retirement at FRA, the benefit amount stays exactly the same - you're right about that. Unfortunately, there's no way to see a hypothetical "what if" calculation for if you'd kept working instead of going on disability. SSA's system doesn't preserve those projections after you start receiving benefits. Technically, your current benefit IS what you would have received at FRA if you hadn't become disabled, with one important difference: While on SSDI, you don't accumulate any additional earnings years that might have increased your PIA (Primary Insurance Amount). If you had continued working in higher-earning years, those could have replaced lower-earning years in your calculation. If you really want to know, you could try requesting your complete earnings record from SSA, then use one of the online calculators to simulate what would have happened if you'd continued working at your pre-disability salary until FRA.

my ssdi switched to regular ss last yr and its the EXACT same amount. they dont even send u a new letter or anything it just happens automatically lol. the lady told me on the phone its basically identical benefits just from different buckets of money or something

I went through this conversion last year. Your question is actually a common one! When SSDI converts to retirement benefits at FRA, your benefit amount remains the same because disability benefits are calculated as if you had reached FRA already. What you're essentially asking is: "What if I had never become disabled and continued working until FRA?" That's hard to know exactly, but it would depend on your continued earnings. Remember, SS retirement is calculated using your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. If you would have had higher earnings in those 8 years between disability and FRA, then yes, your benefit would likely have been somewhat higher. If you're really curious, you could request a complete earnings history from SSA and then use their detailed calculator to input hypothetical earnings for those missing years. It's a bit of work, but would give you a rough estimate of the difference.

So I had EXACTLY this same issue last year! Trying to reach someone at SSA was driving me insane - constant busy signals and disconnections. I finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual SSA agent in under 20 minutes. The agent was able to pull up my work history and gave me a rough estimate of what my retirement would have been if I hadn't gone on disability. In my case it was about $240 more per month because I would have had 7 more high-earning years. Their video shows exactly how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU - was a lifesaver after weeks of trying to get through on my own.

EVERY TIME i call ssa i get hung up on after waiting NINETY minutes!!! its ridiculous how they treat us after we paid into the system our whole lives!!! and now they expect us to just deal with it when we cant even talk to a HUMAN???

To directly answer your question: Your SSDI benefit at FRA conversion is calculated as if you had reached full retirement age at the time you became disabled. This means the amount reflects: 1. Your earnings up until your disability began 2. An adjustment that removes any reduction for taking benefits early 3. No earnings after your disability began If you had continued working instead of receiving SSDI, your retirement benefit might be different based on: - Whether those additional working years would have been higher than your previous 35 highest years - How many more years you would have worked - What your salary would have been during those years The disability freeze protected you from having zero-income years count against you, but it also prevented including potentially higher-earning years.

I went thru the same thing!! When my SSDI changed over i was SHOCKED it was the same amount, i always thought SSDI was more. My neighbor said her husband's check actually went DOWN but i think she's confused about something because everything i've read says the amount stays the same?? The whole system is so confusing lol.