In August 2014, having reached my FRA, my disability benefit automatically converted to a retirement benefit. I immediately applied for spousal benefits and filed form 521 to withdraw my retirement benefit as if I had never filed for a retirement benefit thus allowing me to accumulate delayed retirement credits. Upon request, I payed back the one retirement benefit check I had received. So far, everything had been confirmed in writing as expected. In May 2018, I applied for my retirement benefits to start at age 70. After four months with no response to my application, I went to the local office. I was told that I was not entitled to any delayed retirement credits. They stated that they made a mistake. At the time of conversion, I would have had to suspend my retirement benefit and pay back any and all disability benefits I received in order to accumulate delayed retirement credits. Am I out of luck?

Hi,

Unfortunately, you may be. It sounds like you only have 2 options unless you want to try appealing your case to federal court. The strategy you followed was permissible based on the rules as described in Social Security's operations manual prior to December 2014. In December 2014, Social Security inexplicably rewrote their rules to prevent people drawing Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) from withdrawing the conversion from disability benefits to regular Social Security retirement benefits that occurs automatically at full retirement age (FRA). Thus, they made it impossible for you to draw spousal benefits only from FRA until age 70 while accruing delayed retirement credits (DRC) on your own account. Larry wrote the following article shortly after Social Security announced their rule change: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/social-securitys-christmas-present-b....

In short, Social Security essentially changed the rules in the middle of the game, pulling the rug out from you after the fact. They justified doing so by claiming that they weren't really changing the rules, but instead were just rewriting their manual to clarify what was permissible. So, it sounds like the only way that you could keep the spousal benefits you've been paid and start your own retirement benefits at age 70 is if you appealed your case all the way to the federal court level and ended up winning your case (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/appeal.html). That would be a lengthy process and I assume it would likely involve significant attorney fees and court costs. It's possible that you could win your case at a lower level of appeal, but that would be improbable in my opinion.

If you don't appeal, it sounds like your 2 remaining options would be to a) withdraw your claim for disability benefits and repay all of the SSDI benefits you received, or b) cancel the withdrawal request you filed previously and accept the conversion from SSDI to retirement benefits at your FRA. Option 'a' would likely permit you to keep the spousal benefits you've been paid, and then you could switch to your own retirement benefits inclusive of DRCs starting at age 70, assuming that the latter benefit is higher than your spousal rate. If you drew SSDI for a significant length of time, though, that strategy may well be disadvantageous. Option 'b' would essentially wipe out the spousal benefits you've drawn, replacing them instead with your own full retirement age benefits (without DRCs) assuming that your own benefit rate is higher than your spousal rate.

Please keep in mind that I don't have full knowledge of all of the facts and history of your case. Therefore, my answer is based on my assumption of what's occurred in your case given the description of events as outlined in your question. I can't really advise you of your likely best course of action beyond explaining what appears to be the options available to you.

Best, Jerry