After you reach minimum retirement age, IRS considers the payments your pension and not earned income. Benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance, SSI, or military disability pensions are not considered earned income and cannot be used to claim the EITC. You may qualify for the credit only if you,or your spouse, if filing a joint return, have other earned income.
Poignant: The couple have named the girl after Maya's later mother Minnie Riperton, who died aged 31, pictured here in 1978 a year before her death with her daughter Maya, son Marc and husband Richard.
In 1976 Riperton revealed to Flip Wilson, who was guest-hosting for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, that she had undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer. At the time of her diagnosis, Minnie found out that her cancer had already spread to the lymphatic system. In spite of such a grim prognosis, Minnie continued touring in 1977 and 1978, and became the National spokesperson for the American Cancer Society 78-79, but eventually the cancer would take its toll.