Is a US citizen, resided abroad most of their life able to receive SS on return?

[tuscany123]

Arizona

My mother is 71 (born 1945) and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1976. She did not work in the USA prior to marrying my father and moving abroad.

Fast forward to today, my parents divorced long ago and my mother never remarried but stayed in the UK. She has never taken UK citizenship and still holds her US passport. She has had serious health issues all her life. She has schizophrenia and bipolar, and most recently, a broken hip that severely impairs her mobility. In the UK she is classified as "disabled" due to her psychosis. As a result all her housing, medical, prescriptions and in-home care are covered.

I'd like her to consider moving back to the USA, and move in with me in AZ. She has no pension in the UK or any any benefits that would follow her here to the US. She has approximately $15,000 in savings only (in the UK). She takes copious amounts of medication, for her mental health issues, anxiety, high blood pressure and for the hardware in her hip.

My query revolves around whether she, as a US citizen, would 1) have any social security benefits or 2) have SSI benefits or disability benefits that she could use if I brought her back to the US. She has no income, apart from her small savings. I'm obviously concerned for her health care costs and prescription drug costs which would be considerable.

Where would I start in looking to see what she might be able to qualify for?

Thank you

 

[Silverplum]

Arizona

My mother is 71 (born 1945) and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1976. She did not work in the USA prior to marrying my father and moving abroad.

Fast forward to today, my parents divorced long ago and my mother never remarried but stayed in the UK. She has never taken UK citizenship and still holds her US passport. She has had serious health issues all her life. She has schizophrenia and bipolar, and most recently, a broken hip that severely impairs her mobility. In the UK she is classified as "disabled" due to her psychosis. As a result all her housing, medical, prescriptions and in-home care are covered.

I'd like her to consider moving back to the USA, and move in with me in AZ. She has no pension in the UK or any any benefits that would follow her here to the US. She has approximately $15,000 in savings only (in the UK). She takes copious amounts of medication, for her mental health issues, anxiety, high blood pressure and for the hardware in her hip.

My query revolves around whether she, as a US citizen, would 1) have any social security benefits or 2) have SSI benefits or disability benefits that she could use if I brought her back to the US. She has no income, apart from her small savings. I'm obviously concerned for her health care costs and prescription drug costs which would be considerable.

Where would I start in looking to see what she might be able to qualify for?

Thank you

The Social Security Administration:

https://faq.ssa.gov/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=34019&_referrer=https://www.google.com/

??

 

[FlyingRon]

The FAQ page will certainly lead you to computing her eligibility, but let me give you the very basics. Social security eligibility is determined by having worked jobs that pay in to social security. if her employment history (or her spouses potentially) doesn't involve jobs where she paid those taxes, she won't be eligible. If she worked jobs where they did and she had sufficient "quarters", she will get some amount of benefit.

SSDI works similarly. SSI has different elgibility guideance but does presume that she did work in one of these jobs.

If she never worked in such a job (and her husband never did either), chances are she might be better off staying in the UK.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Actually, any US citizen senior can apply for and receive SSI benefits if they meet the qualifications for SSI. Based on your story, she currently does not.

 

[Onderzoek]

Arizona

My mother is 71 (born 1945) and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1976. She did not work in the USA prior to marrying my father and moving abroad.

Fast forward to today, my parents divorced long ago and my mother never remarried but stayed in the UK. She has never taken UK citizenship and still holds her US passport. She has had serious health issues all her life. She has schizophrenia and bipolar, and most recently, a broken hip that severely impairs her mobility. In the UK she is classified as "disabled" due to her psychosis. As a result all her housing, medical, prescriptions and in-home care are covered.

I'd like her to consider moving back to the USA, and move in with me in AZ. She has no pension in the UK or any any benefits that would follow her here to the US. She has approximately $15,000 in savings only (in the UK). She takes copious amounts of medication, for her mental health issues, anxiety, high blood pressure and for the hardware in her hip.

My query revolves around whether she, as a US citizen, would 1) have any social security benefits or 2) have SSI benefits or disability benefits that she could use if I brought her back to the US. She has no income, apart from her small savings. I'm obviously concerned for her health care costs and prescription drug costs which would be considerable.

Where would I start in looking to see what she might be able to qualify for?

Thank you

She would not qualify for Social Security benefits.

She currently would not qualify for SSI benefits, but if her resources were under $2000 later, she might. Some people outlive their life savings.

She does need to be careful about how she 'spends' her life savings. She doesn't owe you any money because if she did, she would have already paid you. I assume the true is about any other debt. If she moves to the US, her money could be spent on her food and shelter needs, a pro-rata share of the expenses in your household like roommate. She could pay for her flight. She could prepay her funeral expenses. Burial space items are excluded. Burial funds are excluded up to $1500.

She could apply for Medicare Part A and B and use her money to pay the premiums and the copays until her money runs out. Part A is very expensive for someone who has not paid into the system, although there are some programs that help with that. Usually needs based.

If getting on SSI at some point is the goal, she needs to be very transparent about what she does with her money. Transfer it all to a US bank. Write checks for everything. Only pay bills that truly are hers. A good claims rep will want to follow the money trail. Make it easy for them. This may take several months and it is scary to spend a lifetime of savings.

Be aware that there are penalties of one to 36 months for giving away money in order to qualify for benefits and as soon as SSI starts down that road, it is hard to get off of it. Another solution is to just give the money to a family member today and start on the 36 month penalty period and file in 2019.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Hopefully she had the wisdom to file those tax returns and reports of foreign assets, otherwise, Uncle Sugar may take it all when she returns.