Hi, Larry.

Thanks for your good work in helping all of us untangle Social Security; your book is terrific. One of the "warnings" you mentioned in "Get What's Yours" is to take answers from Social Security with a "grain of salt." I just got off the phone with a Social Security representative, and her answer is contrary to my understanding. Both my wife and are "grandparented" under the Social Security changes, since we both turned age 62 prior to the end of 2015. Our plan is to claim benefits under a "restricted application" filing, where my wife elects to file for her retirement benefits early, I will file for spousal benefits only at age 66, and then let my retirement benefits grow and file for them at age 70.

I believe the Social Security representative was confused over the claiming strategy that we wish to pursue (restricted application) and "file and suspend" where she indicated that we would have needed to execute this strategy by the end of March of this year. Please tell me that I'm correct in my understanding (!).

Thanks for your help.
Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Yes, you are correct and the person you spoke with at Social Security is wrong. Since you turned 62 prior to January 2 2016, you still have the option of filing just for spousal benefits at full retirement age (FRA) while letting your own benefits grow until age 70.

Hopefully, the staff at Social Security will be better trained by the time you reach FRA and go to file your restricted application. It might help if the Social Security Administration would get around to updated their employee operations manual to reflect the new changes, but they still haven't done so. They have, however, issued an emergency message explaining policy on the new deeming rules (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/02052016024404PM), so there is really excuse for the staff disseminating misinformation to the public.

Best, Jerry