I'm 62, my wife is 53 and i have a son in high school who is 15.
Can I file a restricted application and only receive benefits for my wife and son leaving my benefits alone.
Does this rule apply?
I am being told by another company that because of my wifes age, we cannot employ this strategy?

NOTE: For exceptions to deemed filing, see GN 00204.035B2 in this section.

2. Exceptions to deemed filing
Regardless of the claimant’s DOB, you must consider the following two exceptions before applying deemed filing:

a. Child-in-care (C-I-C)
A claimant who has in his or her care a child (under age 16 or disabled) entitled to a child’s insurance benefit on his or her spouse’s earnings record, and is filing for spouse's benefits is not deemed to have filed for RIB. He or she may exclude RIB from the scope of the application for spouse's benefits by

Hi,

The short answer is no. I'm not sure what you mean by filing a restricted application, but I'm guessing that you're referring to filing for and suspending your Social Security retirement benefits. You can't voluntarily suspend benefits prior to your full retirement age (FRA), and even if you did so your wife and child couldn't draw benefits from your record while your benefits are suspended (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html).

The only way that your wife and child could receive benefits on your account is if you're deceased or drawing your benefits. And, if you file for your benefits prior to FRA both your benefits and your wife and child's benefits could be subject to full or partial withholding if you continue working and earn more than the exempt amount allowed under Social Security's earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html). Furthermore, your benefit rate would be reduced for age for any months that you're paid benefits prior to FRA.

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully explore and compare all of your various filing options in order to determine the best possible strategy for claiming benefits for you and your family.

Best, Jerry