I have been collecting survivors benefits for a few years now. I turn 65 tomorrow. When I filed gif survivors benefits I was told to keep collecting it until I reach full retirement age and I’ll receive a larger monthly amount. I just read one of your articles about SSA mistaking filed some peoples for their benefits when they were receiving benefits from spouse and got cheated out of future larger payment. How do I endure something like this tied to happen to me. It seems that based upon your article there are mistakes made by SSA and not easily rectified if fixable at all. Any advice would be deeply appreciated
Respectfully
Mike
USN Retired

Hi Mike. I would suggest that you contact Social Security and ask them to check your records to make sure that you were not erroneously signed up for your own Social Security retirement benefits when you applied for survivor benefits. Assuming that you only applied for survivor benefits, you won't be awarded your own Social Security retirement benefits until you apply separately for them.

Assuming that you haven't yet applied for your own benefits, you may want to at least consider waiting until age 70 to file for your own benefits. Your own Social Security retirement benefit rate will increase by 2/3rds of 1% per month (i.e. 8% per year) for each month you delay collecting your own benefits between full retirement age (FRA) and age 70. You could use our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully compare and analyze all of your options so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry