Can Social Security Benefits Only Be Collected By Retired Workers?

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Andy Markowitz and Tracy Thompson,

Updated December 12, 2025

AARP

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Updated December 12, 2025

Far from it. While retirees accounted for more than 76 percent of the people receiving Social Security benefits in November 2025, the Social Security Administration (SSA) also makes payments to:

More than 2.8 million spouses, former spouses and dependent children of retirees.
More than 5.8 million widows and widowers, former spouses, children and (occasionally) parents of wage earners who have died.
People with disabilities and their spouses and children. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) goes to about 7.1 million disabled workers and more than 1 million members of their families.

Here are a few more key Social Security stats:

In November 2025, approximately 70.4 million people received retirement, disability, family or survivor benefits totaling nearly $131.6 billion.
More than 3.7 million of them are the children of retired, disabled or deceased workers. The SSA pays out nearly $3.5 billion a month in child benefits.
Nearly 7.4 million people, more than 2.5 million of them age 65 and over, receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program run by Social Security that provides cash assistance to people with very low incomes who are older, blind or have a disability.

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Keep in mind

You must have spent a certain amount of time in jobs or self-employment in which you paid Social Security taxes to qualify for retirement benefits or SSDI. That's not the case with SSI — eligibility is based on financial need and your age or medical condition.
It’s possible to receive both Social Security benefits and SSI, if you qualify for both. More than 2.5 million people did in November 2025.

Andy Markowitz is a writer and editor for AARP, covering Social Security and fraud. He is a former editor of The Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Tracy Thompson is a journalist and editor who has worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Washington Post. She is the author of three books and lives with her family in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.