In this video attorney Francis Jackson of the law firm of Jackson & MacNichol conducts a live Q & A session on Social Security Disability Training and answers the question: Does a person receiving the benefits have to have a disability to collect survivor benefits? Any surviving child is eligible for benefits if the parent is in the protected category -- deceased or disabled. But it ends when they either turn 18 and are no longer in school or 19 and are in school. They used to extend it if you were in college, but they don't do that anymore.