Most American workers qualify for Social Security retirement benefits, but some circumstances could make you ineligible. If that's the case, you'll need other sources of income once you retire.

If you don't qualify for benefits, depending on the reason, it might be possible for you to become eligible before you reach retirement age. Here are seven common reasons why you might not qualify to collect Social Security benefits during retirement.

1. Not Enough Credits

Social Security benefits are based primarily on how long you work before🌜 retirement and the fact that you pay taxes that support Social Security payments.

To collect your own benefits, you must have earned 40 Social Security credits. If you haven't worked enough in your lifetime to earn these 40 credits, you can't collect Social Security in retirement.

The maximum number of credits that you can earn per year is four. That means a minimum of 10 years of work if you earn the maximum.

Earning Credits

You can earn credits based on your wages or self-employment income. In 2025, you earn one Social Security credit for every $1,810 of covered earnings. To get four credits in 2025, you must earn $7,240.

If you earn the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) in 2025, you must work 249.65 hours, or between 6.2 and 6.3 weeks at 40 hours per week to earn one credit.

If you take two weeks of va🌟cation and earn minim🎉um wage, you can earn your maximum credits by working under 20 hours per week for the remaining 50 weeks of the year. This allows even those needing or wanting to work part-time to earn Social Security credits.

If you are close to retirement and have stopped working but don't have enough credits, you can return to work for the minimum amount of time needed to earn your full 40 credits. If you are unsure of how many credits you already have, create 🐬an account on the Social Secuꦏrity and check your status.

If you've never worked, however, or haven't worked enough, you may still qualify to collect Social Security benefits based on a spouse's or ex-spouse's record. If you are eligible, you can collect as much as 50% of the benefit that your working spouse receives.

2. Premature Death of the Worker

You must be at least 62 years old to start claiming retirement benefits from Social Security. If you pass away prematurely, your spouse or child may 🐈be eligible to collect survivor benefit🥂s.

A widow or widower, for example, can begin collecting Social Security at age 60 based on a deceased spouse's work record. A disabled surviving spouse can start receiving these benefits as early as age 50.

Children can collect survivor benefits based on a parent's work record if they are:

• Age 17 and younger, or
• Ages 18–19 and in school (not college or university) full time, or
• Any age with a disability that developed at age 21 or younger

3. Some Divorces

Though some divorced spouses can collect Social Security retirement benefits based on their ex-spouse's record, others are ineligible to do so. To collect benefits after a divorce, you must:

• Be single
• Be age 62 or older
• Have earned a lower benefit through your work than your ex-spouse earned
• Have been married for at least 10 years

If you are remarried or do not meet other requirements, you cannot collect retirement benefits based on your ex-spouse's record.

4. Retiring In Some Countries

If you 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:retire to a foreign country, you can usually receive your Social Security benefits just as you could if you lived in the United States. However, nine countries disqualify you from receiving benefits if you retire there. These are:

• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Cuba
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• North Korea
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

You can apply for an exception and potentially still receive benefits in seven of these countries. However, if you live in Cuba or North Korea, no exceptions will be made.

5. Certain Noncitizens

Many noncitizens in the U.S. cannot receive Social Security benefits in retirement, even if they have lived and worked there long enough to earn Social Security credits. However, some noncitizens, refugees, and legal immigrants can receive 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if they have 40 Social Security work credits.

The U.S. also has Social Security agreements, known as totalization agreements, with 30 countries. Totalization agreements allow legal immigrants to receive prorated benefits based on the total work credits earned in the U.S. and their home country.

These agreements are particularly helpful for older immigrants who can't earn enough credits in the U.S. alone before retiring.

Even eligible noncitizens and immigrants, however, must have earned at least six Social Security credits in the U.S. Otherwise, they cannot receive benefits.

6. Other Government Pensions

Social Security retirement benefits are based on the payroll, or FICA, taxes you pay into the Social Security fund during your working years. However, some jobs don't pay into the system, and those workers ꩵaren't eligible to receive benefits unless they have also held another job that does participate. These ineligible workers include:

• Employees of the federal government who were hired before 1987 and are part of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Civil Ser♒vice Retirement System (CSRS). This system provides retirement, survivor, and disability benefits.
• Railroad employees with at least 10 years in the industry (or at least five years after 1995). They are covered by the Railroad Retirement Board, an independent federal agency.
• Some state and local government employees who are covered by a pension agreement with their employer.

Railroad workers who don't meet the minimum number of work years have their benefits transferred into the Social Security system.

Government workers who are covered by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Federal Employees Retirement Sy🌳stem (FERS), rather than CSRS, are eligible to receive Social Security benefits in retirement.

Some state and local employees may be covered by both a pension and Social Security; others pay into the Social Security system only.

7. Not Paying Social Security Taxes

To receive Social Security, you must have paid taxes into the system while working. Most workers earning a paycheck have their portion of FICA taxes (half of the total 🔯due) automatically withheld. The employer pays the other portion of the e𒐪mployee's tax.

However, if you are self-employed, you must pay the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:self-employment tax, which covers both the employer and employee portions. If you fail to file and pay your taxes, you won't receive Social Security in retirement.

The Bottom Line

Most workers in the U.S. can receive Social Security in retirement. However, some people are ineligible for benefits, even if they have worked for some or all of their adult lives. These people can include ex-pats who retire in certain countries or workers who were part of a different pension system and didn't pay into Social Security.

You also can't receive benefits if you didn't work enough, either because you immigrated to the U.S. later in life or because you left the workforce too soon to earn enough credits. However, some people who do not qualify based on their own work record can still collect benefits through a spouse, ex-spouse, or totalization agreement with another country.