Happy New Year to you and thank you in advance for responding to my question: I started receiving widows benefits when I turned 60 in September of 2014. First check was in November 2014. I will be 66 in September of 2020. If I'm right in assuming that my Total Gross pay less the 401K, Aflac, Dental, HSA & Optima health deductions are the pre-taxed items that come out of the gross wages, then my total Social Security wages would be around
$ 17,640. I normally lose the checks for Jan & Feb. Will I lose them this year? From what I'm reading in your answers to most of the questions I've read, I'm assuming that they are only going to go by Jan thru Sept income of 2020, which will put me way under the allowed amount I can make and not lose and SS$. Am I correct or wrong?

Hi,

It sounds like you're correct. If you reach your full retirement age (FRA) in September 2020, Social Security would only count your earnings from January through August 2020 for earnings test purposes. And, as long as your countable earnings in those months is below $48,600, you won't lose any benefits because of the earnings test this year.

Best, Jerry