Social Security at 65 with Compassionate Allowance disability - how is payment amount calculated?

At age 65, there's actually no financial advantage to applying for SSDI (disability) over regular retirement benefits. The calculation for your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) is exactly the same for both. The only difference is that disability applications normally have a 5-month waiting period before payments begin, but since you're already at retirement age, you can start receiving retirement benefits immediately. The Compassionate Allowance designation just means your disability claim would be processed faster - it doesn't change the payment amount. Since you're already at retirement age, there's no real benefit to the expedited processing.

my brother had same thing happen he just took regular ss, its the same $ amount but you get it right away instead of waiting for approval and the 5 months. compassionate allowance just makes the disability go thru faster but doesnt give extra $$

I SPENT 3 MONTHS trying to get my disability approved even though I have stage 4 cancer which is DEFINITELY on the Compassionate Allowance list!!! Don't waste your time with disability at 65 - the amount is IDENTICAL to regular Social Security!!! The ONLY reason to ever file for disability instead of retirement is if you're UNDER full retirement age!!! The SSA representatives often give COMPLETELY WRONG INFORMATION!!!

The previous responses are correct. At age 65, there's no financial benefit to applying for disability instead of retirement benefits. The payment calculation is identical in both cases. Here's what happens with the two programs: 1. Retirement benefits: Your PIA (Primary Insurance Amount) is calculated based on your lifetime earnings. At 65, you'll receive approximately 93.3% of your PIA (assuming your full retirement age is 66). 2. Disability benefits: Your payment would be exactly the same PIA calculation, but with the 5-month waiting period. The Compassionate Allowance program simply expedites the disability determination process - it doesn't provide higher payments. Since you're already eligible for retirement benefits, that's the more straightforward path.

I went through something similar with my husband who had Parkinson's. The benefits are calculated exactly the same whether disability or retirement. The only difference would be if you were under full retirement age - then disability might be better because there's no early retirement reduction. At 65, just go for regular retirement benefits - much simpler!

I've been trying to reach SSA for weeks to ask a similar question about my own retirement and disability situation. Kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting for hours. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an agent in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed what others here are saying - at 65, there's no payment advantage to filing for disability vs. retirement. The calculation method is identical. The Compassionate Allowance only speeds up disability approval but doesn't increase payment amounts.

Quick question for anyone who knows - does applying for disability affect how much my wife can get in spousal benefits? She's 62 and was planning to apply for spousal benefits on my record when I start my retirement benefits next month.

I want to thank everyone for the helpful responses. I'm going to go ahead with just the regular retirement application since it seems there's no benefit to pursuing disability at my age. It's frustrating that the SSA representatives gave me conflicting information, but I'm grateful for the clear explanations here.

I'm really glad you found this thread helpful! Just wanted to add one more thing - since you mentioned early-onset Alzheimer's, you might want to consider setting up a representative payee arrangement if you haven't already. Even though you're going with retirement benefits instead of disability, having someone you trust designated to help manage your Social Security payments in the future could be really valuable as your condition progresses. You can set this up proactively with SSA, and it doesn't affect your benefit amount at all. Wishing you all the best with your application!