I was born Sep 20, 1953 and had been receiving spousal support from social Security for a few years. Sep 2020 I applied for full Social Security. In Nov 2020 I cancelled my application and requested to continue Spousal Support. In January I received a letter from Social Security saying all payments were cancelled. I did not start full Social Security and because I cancelled this request spousal support was eliminated and I was told it could not be restarted. I thought I was grandfathered in. How can they just stop paying spousal support?

Hi. If your own Social Security retirement benefits are higher than your spousal benefit rate, your spousal benefit entitlement would have terminated when you started drawing your own benefits (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300202040). Benefits that have been terminated can't automatically be reinstated. If you've now withdrawn your application for retirement benefits, you'll likely need to file a new application for spousal benefits only in order to become re-entitled to those benefits.

Best, Jerry