The United States Social Security Administration sends a large number of retirement benefits to American households each month. Although most citizens can apply for this check, there are certain requirements that must be met in order to receive it.
There is a minimum number of work credits required by the Social Security Administration in order to get a monthly retirement check. Therefore, we must meet these minimum credits before claiming a benefit and thus get one of the established benefits each month.
This is not only true for the age retirement benefit, but also for the checks from the Social Security Disability Administration, but the truth is that the latter have other rules when it comes to meeting the minimum credits.
Minimum credits for requesting payment from the Social Security Administration
Work credits can be earned for a certain amount of time worked. And it does not matter if that time worked is continuous or if it is cut in several moments in several years. Thus, each year we can get a maximum of 4 credits.
And to apply for a benefit from the Social Security Administration we must have a minimum of 40 credits earned. This means that we have to work a minimum of 10 years before thinking about retirement. However, it is true that there are some very exceptional cases in which this rule may change.
To avoid problems and eliminate doubts we can contact the Administration and thus get all the information about our situation. Each retirement case is totally different, so we could have access to the check in another different situation.
Can I request payment from the Social Security Administration with the minimum credits?
It is obviously possible to apply for a benefit from the Social Security Administration if we have the minimum credits required in our situation. However, it is not advisable to do this, as we will have too small a payment.
If we want to have a big enough check to live well and with peace of mind we should wait until we have more work credits. The maximum payment in 2024 is $4,873 and to reach it we have to work a minimum of 35 years.
Everything between the minimum work credits and the maximum Social Security can be for us, as each case is individual. So at the time we apply to the Social Security Administration for our retirement check, the amount is calculated according to our work history.