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How Do We Get Social Security To Process My Brother's Voluntary Suspension Request?

My brother began social security benefits at age 63. He reaches his FRA next month (Jan. '22). He wants to"suspend" these benefits until 70 to receive delayed benefit credits in the interim. Two SSA employees have told us he cannot do this (which I'm confident is wrong)--one after talking to her "manager". Offices are still closed here in Michigan. How do we get past this roadblock?

Hi. Your brother can request voluntary suspension of his benefits, so the employees he's spoken to are mistaken. Your brother could keep calling Social Security until he reaches an employee who knows what they are talking about, but I would suggest that he submit a written and signed request to Social Security on a form SSA-795 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-795.pdf). I would recommend mailing it to his servicing office, and you can find their address using Social Security's office locator: https://secure.ssa.gov/ICON/main.jsp. If your brother wants to suspend his benefits effective with January 2022 he'll need to submit his request no later than December 2021.

Requests for voluntary suspension aren't required to be in writing, but as you've discovered there are a lot of poorly trained Social Security employees. Submitting his request in writing should at least leave a paper trail. If your brother does mails in a written request he may also want to submit a copy of the following section of Social Security's operations manual with the first example highlighted: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202409110.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Dec 3 2021 - 11:57am
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