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This all started when Husband filed for SS and I was sent a letter saying I could be eligible for spousal and to check with SS.
I went to our local SS office to apply for spousal benefits and after some computer key punching I am told a letter will be sent to me with a time for a call from SS to apply for spousal. Two weeks later I get the letter with a date of April 16th. The letter says I can go online and apply for spousal and cancel the phone call.
I'm not getting it...why the letter for an appointment call when I could have been told to apply online when I was at the SS office? And why can't I apply at the SS office? Did I just get someone that didn't know what she was doing, or can spousal not be applied for at the SS office?
You can indeed apply on-line or via a phone appointment. They would prefer you apply for benefits on-line because it is less expensive for the "system". Either way works. Personally, I have more confidence with human interaction. April 16th is only a few weeks away.
When I applied for spousal benefits, (so that I could let my own benefits "grow" before claiming them), I went to an office and submitted all the paperwork and supporting documentation. Then I had to have a phone conference later for the actual application. I know, silly. The person who called me was in the same office.
my wife was collecting since 62 . so when i finally filed at 65 she was entitled to spousal . there was no way to apply for spousal on line . the link takes you to a form that gets printed and mailed or brought in to the office .
we mailed in the forms and a few days later called and scheduled the phone call . everything went like clock work . 3 minutes of questions for both of us on the phone and it was done .
I applied for spousal by phone and at the time recommended it. Like others have mentioned I was doing it to allow mine to grow. I had specific questions that were answered by a human. What was interesting were the questions I was asked to make sure that was what I really wanted to do. I inquired why the questioning and the follow up was interesting
the spousal is not done on line because of the questions they ask each of you pretty much on the file confirming certain marriage info .
it was funny , i could not remember our marriage date on the fly since we actually have 2 dates .
i wanted to go on my wife to be's health insurance and it was may so i had to get on by the summer because she was a teacher .
so we were slated to get married in june but it was to late for the paper work so we very quietly had a friend who is a judge marry us in may . we never told the kids because my son was in law school and we did not want to slight any of the kids by doing it without them .
then we got married as planned like it was the first time .
the spousal is not done on line because of the questions they ask each of you pretty much on the file confirming certain marriage info .
Those weren’t the questions. It was about why I was doing what I was and did I understand. Even the percentage of withholding tax. He even called on a Saturday which had me suspicious at first.
oooh , ours were about dates . we had to take turns on the phone answering date questions .
We had a lot of that on file and there were those questions. It was the other probing which at the time I took one way, however after they did away with I began to wonder.
This all started when Husband filed for SS and I was sent a letter saying I could be eligible for spousal and to check with SS.
I went to our local SS office to apply for spousal benefits and after some computer key punching I am told a letter will be sent to me with a time for a call from SS to apply for spousal. Two weeks later I get the letter with a date of April 16th. The letter says I can go online and apply for spousal and cancel the phone call.
I'm not getting it...why the letter for an appointment call when I could have been told to apply online when I was at the SS office? And why can't I apply at the SS office? Did I just get someone that didn't know what she was doing, or can spousal not be applied for at the SS office?
Color me confused!
Color me confused also!! I don't get the amount of disparate responses from the SS offices. I was just there, and filed my restricted application at our SS office last Wednesday. Ours took only 20 minutes, including both of us signing up for Medicare B at the same time.
Curious- was your local office too swamped to handle your paperwork??
we had no reason to go to one. it said we could call and do spousal . signing up for ss on line was very easy so we did that and it said we could do spousal on the phone .
our office is jammed with horrible parking in the area .
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