Family Benefits

If you receive Social Security disability or retirement benefits, the following members of your family may also receive benefits:

• your spouse, if
  • the spouse is at least 62 years of age, or
  • caring for a child under age 16, or
  • caring for a disabled child who receives Social Security benefits
• your divorced spouse, if
  • the marriage lasted at least 10 years, and
  • the spouse is at least 62 years of age, and
  • the spouse is not married to somebody else, and
  • the spouse is not eligible for an equal or higher benefit amount based on their own, or anybody else’s, Social Security earnings record (see “work credits,” above).
• your child, if:
  • under 18 years of age, or
  • under 19 years of age, and a full-time student no higher than the 12th grade or
  • disabled, if the disability began before age 22.

Likewise, if you became disabled before the age of 22, you may be eligible to receive Social Security benefits based on your parents’ work “credits”. Children and adults who became disabled as children may also be eligible for Supplemental Security Income.