Can my husband apply for Social Security disability benefits years after Hep C treatment?

Unfortunately, your friend is giving you incorrect information. There are two major problems with this scenario: 1. SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) requires that your disability prevents you from doing substantial gainful activity (SGA) for at least 12 months. Since your husband continued working through his treatments, he wouldn't have qualified even back then. 2. SSDI benefits automatically convert to retirement benefits when you reach Full Retirement Age (FRA). Since your husband is already collecting retirement benefits and has been retired for 2 years, the window for disability application has closed. The only possible exception would be if he could prove he became disabled before his application for retirement benefits AND within the last 5 years. But even then, he would need medical evidence showing he couldn't work at all during that period, which contradicts your statement that he continued working.

My uncle tried to do something like this!! He had cancer 8 years before retiring and someone told him he could get backpay from SS for the time he was sick even though he kept working. Spent $3000 on a lawyer who took his money and then told him it was impossible. DONT waste your money!!!

Wait, I'm confused... is your husband on regular Social Security retirement now? Or is he on SSDI? Because those are totally different programs with different rules.

As a former SSA employee, I can definitively say this is not possible. To receive SSDI benefits: 1. The disability must be severe enough to prevent substantial gainful activity 2. The condition must last (or be expected to last) at least 12 months or result in death 3. You must apply while still insured for disability benefits Since your husband continued working through his treatment and has now been collecting retirement for 2 years, he's well outside the window where he could apply for disability. Additionally, retroactive SSDI benefits are limited to 12 months prior to application date - not 15 years. Your husband's retirement benefit amount is permanently fixed at this point, except for annual COLA increases.

I work with disability cases and unfortunately see this misunderstanding often. One additional point: even if your husband HAD qualified for disability during his treatment period, the maximum retroactive benefit period is 12 months from application date. So even in the best case scenario, he couldn't get benefits for something that happened 15 years ago. If you want to verify all this directly with SSA, I'd recommend using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an agent quickly instead of waiting on hold for hours. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU - it's been a lifesaver for my clients who need to speak directly with SSA representatives about complex situations like this.

The SSA system is IMPOSSIBLE to navigate!! My brother had a similar situation with a serious back injury and trying to figure out if he qualified for disability or early retirement. The rules are deliberately confusing and they WANT to deny you benefits you've earned!! It's disgusting how they treat people who've paid into the system their whole lives!!

Is your husband getting his full SS benefit amount? If he started taking retirement at 61, that's below his full retirement age and he's getting a permanently reduced benefit. If he's only 63 now, he could potentially suspend his current benefits until he reaches full retirement age (probably 66 or 67 depending on birth year) to get a higher monthly amount later. Might be worth looking into.

my cousin had hep c too and got it treated thank goodness! but he never thought about disability either, it's rough but he got through it too. glad your husband is doing better now!

One thing worth noting: If your husband's current benefit is lower than what you're entitled to as a spouse (potentially up to 50% of his full retirement age benefit), you might want to look into spousal benefits when you reach eligibility age. This could help maximize your household's total Social Security income, even if the disability option isn't available.