Hi Larry, I turn 67 on 27 December this year. If I file for Social Security in January 2020, my understanding is that I will get 8% additional due to DRC's. 1st question: Is my understanding correct? By filing in January, will I also get an additional 0.67% the following January due to earning a month's worth of DRC by filing in January of 2020? Similarly, if I waited until February of 2020 to file, meaning my first check comes in March, would I have earned an additional 2 months of DRC's that would be applied the following January automatically to my social security benefit? Thanks!

Hi,

Not exactly. Actually, if you turn 67 on December 27 2019 and you file for your Social Security retirement benefits effective with January 2020, the amount added to your benefit rate for delayed retirement credits (DRC) will be roughly 8.67% (i.e. 13 months x 2/3rds of 1%), not 8%. The months for which you would accrue DRCs in that event would be December 2018 through December 2019.

If you filed effective with February 2020 (i.e. the payment that comes in March) you would receive 1 additional DRC for January 2020, but that wouldn't be added to your rate until effective with your payment for January 2021. In other words, your rate effective with February 2020 would include 13 months of DRCs (i.e. roughly 8.67%), and your rate effective with January 2021 would include credit for 14 months of DRCs (i.e. roughly 9.33%). However, Social Security probably wouldn't get around to automatically adding the additional DRC until up to 2 years later. They would pay you any accrued back pay, though.

Before you decide on when to claim your benefits you may want to consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully explore and compare your options so that you can make the best possible choice.

Best, Jerry

Best, Jerry