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We did everything on line. Smooth, fast and quick! 100% accuracy and benefits came on time both with Medicare and SS payments. Just saying. That was a year ago for me and a few months ago for Mrs5150.
sounds like my call when we needed a certain dept. at vanguard . except they gave no wait time. we hung up after calling 2x with the longest hold on speaker phone 1hr 15 min .
we have been lucky ,even here in nyc we got someone within about 10 minutes on the phone at ss.
are they questions we can answer here ?
maybe thank you ~
can I file for my own SS off of my record SS at age 62 ...though my husband hasn't yet filed for his own SS and is waiting until age 70?
And if I do this^^^... am I forced to take his Spousal benefit w/my own at FRA?? Will it just kick in suddenly because it is lower than 50% of my husbands FRA benefit??
I would be 62 and a few months later, he would turn 70
It's relative to how long it would take you to drive to an office and wait there to talk to someone. When I lived in a boonie town in CA, I could get in and out of the local SSA office without an appointment in less than an hour. Here in the SF Bay Area, it's faster to wait on the phone than to go to an office - and it often means waiting on the phone for an hour. But, if I drove to an office and waited, it would be half a day.
The good news is, that 9 out of 10 times whatever business you need to take care of with them over the phone, once you get someone, is taken care of correctly the first time.
FYI, though, if you are calling to change your address - make sure they get it right. Make sure they spell everything back to you. When I moved here, the person who took the info thought they heard one thing, but it was another - sounded similar. They put in the wrong info, and it took many phone calls to state offices, as well as SSA, to get it straightened out. It affected my state Medicaid - because the SSA address was incorrect. Now I know, that I should have spelled it out, and had her spell it back to me.
Other than that, though, I've had good luck with getting someone competent who can take care of business- once you get to them :-)
can I file for my own SS off of my record SS at age 62 ...though my husband hasn't yet filed for his own SS and is waiting until age 70?
And if I do this^^^... am I forced to take his Spousal benefit w/my own at FRA?? Will it just kick in suddenly because it is lower than 50% of my husbands FRA benefit??
I would be 62 and a few months later, he would turn 70
yes you can file at 62 for your own .that has nothing to do with your husband filing .as far as filing for spousal , you are deemed to file for spousal at the same time you file for yours .
so what ever age you file for your own an age marker is set for your spousal . you can't get a dime of spousal until your husband files .
so what happens is a spousal age marker is set at the age you file and remembered until your husband finally files ..
if you filed under your own fra for your benefit there is a formula that is used to determine your total benefit with spousal .
having filed for your own at 62 your total benefit will be 1/2 your husbands with a 30% reduction off that .
if that is more than your own ,your new amount goes in to effect as soon as your husband files .
but it is not automatically applied . you have to call them or go in , you can't do it on line , they will mesh the two accounts together and ask you and him some quick questions .
my wife filed at 62 for hers while i delayed . i just filed and now she is over her fra but that age marker was set when she filed early so even though her spousal now kicks in and she is over fra she still gets that permanent reduction on the spousal .
this is the formula for spousal ,assuming your fra is 66. it is always based on 1/2 the higher spouses benefit at fra .
from ss site:
"A spouse can choose to retire as early as age 62, but doing so may result in a benefit as little as 32.5 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount. A spousal benefit is reduced 25/36 of one percent for each month before normal retirement age, up to 36 months. If the number of months exceeds 36, then the benefit is further reduced 5/12 of one percent per month.
For a spouse who is not entitled to benefits on his or her own earnings record, this reduction factor is applied to the base spousal benefit, which is 50 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount. For example, if the worker's primary insurance amount is $1,600 and the worker's spouse chooses to begin receiving benefits 36 months before his or her normal retirement age, we first take 50 percent of $1,600 to get an $800 base spousal benefit. Then we compute the reduction factor, which is 36 times 25/36 of one percent, or 25 percent. Applying a 25 percent reduction to the $800 amount gives a spousal benefit of $600. Thus, in this case, the final spousal benefit is 37.5 percent of the primary insurance amount."
having filed for your own at 62 your total benefit will be 1/2 your husbands with a 30% reduction off that .
.
i forget to specify , the 1/2 your husbands , means 1/2 your husbands fra benefit , not the actual benefit he gets . spousal never works off any delayed credits from fra to 70.
so if your husband is at least fra and you get spousal at 62, it works out you will get 32.50% of his fra amount .
if both of you are pre fra when you file , at 62 he would get a 25% reduction off his and you would get a 30% reduction off half his fra amount .
the formula is a bit different if both are pre fra or only you are pre fra when filing .
i don't know if anyone noticed but the two charts don't come to the same spousal benefit amount .
if you figure the same 1k primary amount the social security chart gives you 350.00 . that is based on 1/2 the primary with a 30% reduction .
if you look at the other table it works off full and gives you a 67-1/2% reduction off full which is 325.00 .
i thought there may be a further penalty on spousal if both are filing early but that is not correct . the reason there is a difference is no one files 48 months early at 62 .
you don't actually get a check until 62 and 1 month so that is the difference . the ss chart includes that fact . it shows my wife gets 35.63% of my full , not 32% of my full
We did everything on line. Smooth, fast and quick! 100% accuracy and benefits came on time both with Medicare and SS payments. Just saying. That was a year ago for me and a few months ago for Mrs5150.
Usually "online" means everything is straightforward with no special issues or questions - I'm sure many start on this route but get diverted when they don't have the simplest case.
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thank you ~
