Planning ahead for possibility of delayed retirement benefits for spouse who is 62 and currently receiving SSDI. Have had two phone interactions with SocSec and one in person. One of the phone reps and the in-person rep simply stated that it could not be done, implying that spouse had already gotten a deal on the level of his SSDI payments. Quoted the POMS section you referenced in an archived answer to the guy on the phone, asking for his interpretation. He did his best to avoid acknowledging the meaning of that reference, and tried to tell me why it would be a bad idea, leading with the fact that it would make work for them, and did we know we would have to go without SocSec payments for that time period. That conversation ended with both of us annoyed, and the SocSec person telling me he would no longer discuss it and I was "on my own". So, I'm wondering if other people have succeeded in doing this by simply "unfiling" on line and avoiding any human contact. We would like to plan ahead.

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience in your dealings with Social Security employees. Unfortunately, there is no way that your wife could suspend her benefits online when she reaches full retirement age (FRA), unless Social Security expands their online capabilities by that time. By the way, FRA is when your wife's Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) will convert to regular Social Security retirement benefits.

Your wife definitely can suspend her benefits effective with the month she reaches FRA, though, but to do so she'll need to submit a request to Social Security during the 3 month period prior to the month she reaches FRA. The request can be oral or in writing, but a written request is probably advisable. She could submit a written request to Social Security by mail, but that may make it difficult to follow up in the event that Social Security fails to process her request. If she'd like to try that route, the recommended form to use is an SSA-795 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-795.pdf). That's basically just a blank form, so she would need to enter a statement such as 'I wish to suspend my benefits effective with (fill in the month and year she reaches full retirement age)'.

Best, Jerry