What Are the Different Types of Social Security Benefits

What Are the Different Types of Social Security Benefits, Every individual wants to be secure mentally, physically, financially, and socially as well? It leads to the birth of the term known as social security. Social security is defined as the security given to people when they are unable to earn money due to some reason. Before applying to get the merits of social security, it is important to be familiar with the types of social security benefits.

There are 4 basic categories of these benefits, which people can get. These benefits according to different categories are paid in accordance with the record of your earnings. These are:

What Are the Different Types of Social Security Benefits
What Are the Different Types of Social Security Benefits

What Are the Different Types of Social Security Benefits

What are the 4 Main Types of Social Security Benefits

  • Disability benefits
  • Retirement benefits
  • Dependent benefits
  • Survivor benefits

These benefits all come under different programs like the OASDI or Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program. This is the official name of social security. So, start knowing the different benefits, a person can get under these categories when it comes to social security reimbursements:

Benefits associated with the retirement

Employees, who have been employed in ‘covered employment’ for an adequate number of years are qualified for retirement merits when they withdraw the work at age 62. It generally means that an employee must have worked a total of at least 10 years of work at a non-organizational job.

Under this category, a person may select to get receiving the benefits of retirement at any time after he or she reaches the age of 62.

But, there are several incentives to wait till the full retirement age. This age is between 65 and 67 according to the date of birth of a person. The amount of the benefits will be decreased by some percentage levels in a permanent manner if a person starts claiming them prior to reaching the full retirement age.


In addition to that, another incentive is based on the fact that when you keep working, the retirement benefits will be boosted up slightly, but permanently for every year till age 70 to put in the claim. People should keep in mind that there is no need to delay the retirement benefits to be availed unless they have a valid reason to do that.

Furthermore, regardless of the time you wait to have those benefits, the amount you take will be only a small percentage of your earnings, possibly.

The benefits to the dependents

Social security benefits are not limited to retirees only. In fact, the dependents will also obtain the benefits of social security. For that, it is good to know the terms and conditions.

If you are the partner of a disabled or retired employee who is eligible to get the benefits of social security in terms of retirement or disability, you and your disabled or minor children may be permitted to get those benefits after calculating and assessing the earning record of the employee. It is completely true and factual, whether or not you really depend on your partner for your support.

Must Read: How Singles Can Apply For The Social Security Benefits?

Benefits provided for the disability

These benefits are given to employees, who are disabled or become a victim of the disability during the working time period. In any case, if you have not reached the age of retirement, but have fulfilled all the work-related needs and requirements and are contemplated disabled under the medical guidelines made by the social security program, then you are qualified to receive the benefits that are roughly equal to what your full retirement profits would be.

Survivors aids

It is also one of the major categories that fall in the social security benefits. If you are the current partner of a worker who is eligible for disability or retirement benefits of social security, then you are allowed to take the delivery of these benefits. You and your disabled or minor kids may be authorized to advantages based on the late partner’s earnings records.

If you are qualified for any of the social security benefits, then it is ideal thing to cover these benefits on time. You can take the help of the internet for more information related to these benefits. Sometimes, you may have confusion regarding your earnings records. If this is the case, then you are allowed to see your earnings records and evaluate them for correcting the mistakes if any.

In some cases, employers make some mistakes in the maintenance of the earning records of workers. Due to these mistakes, employees may lose their social security benefits. This is why it is advised for every employee to check the earnings record after a short period of time like once every year and know whether or not it is right or needs some corrections to make.

Do same-sex spouses get qualified for these benefits?

Upon receiving social security benefits, people make their life comfortable and simple. They do not need to worry about their needs, or how to survive in life as they obtain these social security benefits. There are some cases, in which people have a lot of confusion related to same-sex spouses.

Based on the current law, people with same-sex and they are spouses, in this case, are eligible to avail of these benefits, only if the state in which they reside accepts their marriage and proves it a valid marriage. At present, this means that any of the states, which have accepted these kinds of marriages in addition to New Mexico, will accept legal same-sex weddings from other states as well.

Applying for the SS benefits

Last but not the least, you need to know the right way to apply for these benefits. To apply for SS retirement or other kinds of benefits, you can use the internet. On the web, you can find many sites, which will help you in claiming the benefits of social security no matter whether they are related to retirement, disability or other kinds of categories.

It is also a wise idea to have complete information regarding the application for Supplemental Security Income.

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