client of mine at 62 filed for social security. He is married and wife works and is not eligible for ss due to age. He told me that he signed some waiver that states he will not work or earn any $$ for the balance of this year (initial year, from retirement date 7/2-12/31/16). Doing so, he said increased his monthly benefit, do you know what this waiver is? He said at the social security office they were surprised that he knew about this "waiver" ...he alluded that this is some obscure rule that no one is aware of and that ss keeps it quiet. Thxs

Hi,

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However, I can tell you that there is no 'waiver' form that's used in the context that your client described. My guess is that he was referring to receipt of reduced retirement benefits based on the monthly earnings test. Social Security is certainly not trying to keep that a secret. Information about the monthly test is available on their website: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/rule.html.

Social Security generally accepts a person's allegation on their application with regard to which months will qualify as non-service months for purposes of the monthly test, although they may be required to sign a form after the year is over confirming that they did in fact have the alleged non-service months. Social Security also occasionally sends out mid-year mailers asking people to respond if their previous earnings estimate has changed. None of that has any effect on the person's benefit amount, though. It simply determines whether or not they can be paid for a particular month or months.

Best, Jerry