Spouse received her Award letter yesterday with first payment scheduled for receipt in January 2021 for December 2020 benefit. This will be her first payment on her Own Record as she has been receiving a Spousal Benefit. The last claim for Spousal is November 2020 and expected receipt on December 20,2020. (Delayed Credits have been accruing)
The letter states the following: "You will receive $2,683.00 for December 2020. After that you will receive $2,853.00 on or about the fourth Wednesday of each month."
We called the Social Security office for an explanation for the difference between the December payment and the future payments. The representative could not provide an explanation for the discrepancy. I understand adjustments for the 2021 1.3% COLA and the increase of $3.90 Part B Medicare premium, but this is much less than the difference between the two payments.
Anyone have an explanation for this?

Hi,

I can give you a probable explanation, but I can't give you a definite answer without knowing your wife's birthdate. If a person claims their Social Security retirement benefits between the month they reach full retirement age (FRA) and the month they reach age 70, delayed retirement credits (DRC) are initially creditable only for months from the month they reached FRA through December of the year prior to the year of their first month of benefit entitlement. Any DRCs earned during the year in which benefits are claimed can't be credited until the person's benefit payment for the following January. Therefore, the only way that your wife's benefit payment for the month of December 2020 would include the DRCs she earned in 2020 is if she reached age 70 no later than December 2020.

For example, let's say Mary files for her benefits effective with December 2020. Mary's primary insurance amount (PIA), which is equal to her Social Security retirement benefit rate if she had started drawing at FRA, is $2,000. Mary's date of birth is January 15 1951, so her FRA was the month she reached age 66 (i.e. January 2017). As of December 2020, Mary would have accumulated 47 months of DRCs (i.e. for January 2017 through November 2020), however, Mary can't be credited with the 11 DRCs she earned in 2020 until her benefit payment for the month of January 2021. Thus, Mary's benefit payment for the month of December 2020 would include credit for 36 DRCs (i.e. for January 2017 through December 2019), making her benefit rate $2,480 (i.e. $2000 x 1.24). Then, effective with Mary's benefit payment for January 2021, she can be credited with the additional 11 DRCs earned in 2020 to raise her benefit rate to $2,626 (i.e. $2000 x 1.313333).

Best, Jerry