Will my son lose his father's Social Security benefits if I apply for SSI due to his autism diagnosis?

You can potentially get both! Your son can receive the dependent benefits from his father's retirement record AND SSI if he qualifies. SSI is need-based, so they'll look at your household income and resources. The dependent benefits from his father will count as income when determining SSI eligibility, but having one doesn't automatically disqualify the other. My nephew is in a similar situation - gets survivor benefits from his dad and SSI for his disability. The SSI payment might be reduced, but he won't lose the retirement benefits.

When my daughter got diagnosed with a developmental delay, I tried applying for SSI while she was getting benefits from my ex-husband. It was a MESS!!! They reduced her SSI payment because of the other benefits, and then I had to deal with constant paperwork reviews. Just warning you it's not simple. Still worth applying though because even a small SSI payment usually qualifies you for Medicaid which is HUGE for autism services.

I can clarify this for you. Your son receives what's called "auxiliary benefits" from his father's Social Security retirement record. These benefits are separate from SSI (Supplemental Security Income), which is a needs-based program for people with disabilities. When you apply for SSI, Social Security will: 1. Count his current auxiliary benefits as unearned income 2. Apply exclusions and deductions based on your household situation 3. Potentially award a reduced SSI payment He won't lose his father's benefits, but the SSI amount will likely be reduced by the amount he receives from his father (minus some exclusions). Even a small SSI payment can qualify him for Medicaid in most states, which can be valuable for autism treatment services.

my kid gets both. you keep both but they subtract some of the retirement from the SSI amount. still worth it for the medicaid which pays for my sons speech therapy

I spent WEEKS trying to reach SSA to ask almost this exact question about my grandson! Kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting for hours. Finally found Claimyr.com which got me connected to a live SSA agent in about 20 minutes. They have a system that waits on hold for you then calls when an agent is available. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed that your child can receive both types of benefits, but the SSI amount will be reduced based on the retirement benefits he already gets. Getting the official answer directly from SSA saved me so much worry.

Your son WON'T lose the retirement benefits but u need to be VERY careful with the SSI application!!! I work with special needs families and see this all the time. Make sure you report ALL income and resources correctly or they can come after you later for overpayments. They'll count his father's benefit as income but your son might still qualify for a reduced SSI payment. Also remember SSI has a resource limit of $2000 - that includes any savings accounts in his name!

have u looked into the childhood disability benefit (CDB)? its different than SSI and might be better in your case since your son already gets benefits from dad

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses! I called my local SSA office this morning and got some additional information. They confirmed what many of you said - my son can receive both benefits, but the SSI amount will be reduced. They also explained that the autism diagnosis doesn't affect his current benefits from his dad at all. I'm going to go ahead with the SSI application mainly for the Medicaid coverage. Really appreciate all your help navigating this complicated system!