I turned 66 in October 2017. My wife started taking her retirement benefits at age 62. (She was born April 1, 1952) Can I still file and suspend as I am continuing to work and expect to work for Allegheny County till age 70. This would allow her to increase her benefit from 700 dollars as a retirement benefit to (I calculate LOL) 900 dollars as a spousal benefit if I file and suspend. (or did Congress screw our ability to do this) In the alternative, should I take my spousal benefit which I believe your book emphasizes patience and so I should take the lesser of the two to increase benefits later.
As an aside, does my county pension have WEP problems?
Thank all of you for your fabulous books!
Paul

Hi Paul,

Your wife wouldn't be able to receive spousal benefits if you filed for and suspended your benefits, at least for as long as your benefits remain suspended. And yes, the reason for that is the amendments passed by Congress in 2015 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/claiming.html?intcmp=AE-RET-PLRT-REL...).

However, it sounds like what you could and probably should do instead is file a restricted application for spousal benefits only on your wife's record effective with the month you reached full retirement age. That could then permit you to draw spousal benefits for 4 years prior to switching to your own record at age 70. You should strongly consider using our maximization software in order to determine if this would in fact be your best strategy.

WEP (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf) will only affect your Social Security retirement benefits if you receive a pension from a job where you did not pay Social Security taxes on your earnings.

Best, Jerry