I need some information about SS retirement benefits and I can't it on the net.

[Maraya1969]

My brother is 59 now and has never paid into social security. I think years ago he thought that ss would not survive for his retirement. He also is a minister and I read that some churches do not pay into ss.

My question if anyone can answer is: Can he start paying into ss now and be eligible for benefits in 10 years? Or any shorter length of time? I read that in his income taxes he has been paying into it all his working life.

I really appreciate if anyone knows about or can send me in the right direction.

OH, he said he will get medicare at 65 and I thought you needed to get ss to get medicare. Who is right?

[OKNancy]

1. I googled using this: how many years work to qualify for social security

lots of results.
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If you were born in 1929 or later, you need to work at least 10 years to become eligible for Social Security. The SSA determines eligibility with a system of credits. Basically, you earn up to four credits for every year worked, and you need a total of 40 credits to qualify for Social Security.
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pdf from the socialsecurityadministration here: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10072.pdf

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more information here: http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/credits2.htm

[Maraya1969]

2. Thank you so much! I actually found that too but I was hoping there was something better than that

[SheilaT]

3. Are you absolutely certain he's never paid in to SS?

And if he never has, don't the churches he's worked for have a pension plan?

I am utterly astonished at how many people I run into who at age 23 just assumed SS wouldn't be there for them, and so blithely never contributed to it or any other retirement, and now all of a sudden are realizing that this was something they needed.

I know that sounds a bit unsympathetic, but people have to understand that what they do has consequences.

As has already been pointed out, if he gets a job that pays into SS, he only needs to work ten years to qualify.

added on edit: If he's eligible for Medicare, he may well also be eligible for SS. He should go on line or to the nearest SS office, rather than asking for help on line.

[Maraya1969]

4. He would have to work until he is 58.5 and I don't think he wants to do that.

He says he's been saving money all his life, I have no idea how much he has since he has a wife and 3 kids.

And I thought he was completely stupid for deciding not to pay in. I think back then he thought that SS would not be here now.

Do you have to be poor to get medicare after you retire? That's another question I can't find the answer to. My father made a lot of money and set up a couple trust funds but I think there is not a lot left. We had a ten unit apartment building that got ruined in NJ from Hurricane Sandy, (and my Mom, who's name it was in could not get anything from FEMA or any other place because she had other money.

[SheilaT]

5. You have to be poor to get Medicare at all.

But they are state run programs, although they use federal money, so just how poor depends on what state he lives in.

The earliest you can collect social security is age 62, so he couldn't possibly collect at 58.5 anyway.

And while disability hasn't come up in this thread, in case your friend is thinking he can go for that, there are two basic things to keep in mind. First is that you have to be truly disabled in some way and really not able to work. Just because you have some chronic disorder impacting your life, as long as it does not keep you from work, you can't get disability. The other thing about SSI that I want to bring up here is that it's not a supplement to social security. If you retire and get SSI, at age 62 you simply get switched over to regular SS. Which also means if you become unable to work and you're already 62, you simply file for SS.

I am now 65, and when I was in my twenties there were already people my age blithely assuming SS wouldn't be around forty years later. I told those people then, and I tell young people now, that it will be around for them.

I knew a woman who managed to sneak outside the system when she was in her thirties and always be paid cash for the work she did. When she turned 65 she was still eligible for Medicare because she'd worked inside the system long enough in the past. She also was entitled to some SS, and was at first fearful that the system would come after her because of all the undeclared income she'd had in the intervening years. I persuaded her that they weren't going to care about that, and that she'd earned the SS and should collect it. She did.