Oh shit. You just helped me inadvertently discover my problem. When I started playing and leveled, it told me to put a point into the perk tree in my SPECIAL, so I did and just kept doing that each level, not realizing that the PERK POINTS shared with the SPECIAL POINTS. The reason I can't get perks is because I keep spending them on my SPECIAL. God damn it. I might as well just start over.
Did I mention I hate the Fallout 4 UI? Okay to get out of this menu you have to hit tab, but to get out of THIS menu, you have to hit ESC. To enter this menu, hit E, but that one, his ENTER, and THAT ONE, hit Space. Also this one you have to use the arrow keys. All while showing me a three second tutorial blip that is hard to notice when I have a feral goal trying to kill me.