My wife reached her full retirement age (66) last November. We went to our local security office last week and didn't have a very helpful person. My wife signed up for social security to start in April this year with the first check coming in May. We expected to receive the amount earned at 66 plus 5 months of extended credit for waiting 5 months past her retirement age. The social security representative said my wife will not receive the payment for the additional 5 months until next year, just the amount due at 66. I had never heard that before is it correct? Thank you.

Hi,

What you were told is partially correct, but not exactly. If you apply for benefits between full retirement age (FRA) and age 70 and effective with any month other than January, you initially only receive credit for any delayed retirement credits (DRC) you earned through December of the year prior to the year you claim benefits. Any remaining DRCs earned in the year that you claimed benefits are credited effective with your benefit payment for the following January.

Therefore, since your wife reached FRA in November 2019 and is claiming benefits effective with April 2020, her initial benefit rate will include credit for 2 months of DRCs (i.e. November & December of 2019). Credit for her other 3 DRCs (i.e. January through March 2020) will be due effective with her payment for January 2021, however, Social Security may not actually process the recomputation to include those credits until sometime in 2022. My understanding is that the automated process used to credit partial year DRCs is only run every other year, although Social Security would pay any back pay due.

Your wife may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to determine if she has better options for maximizing her benefits.

Best, Jerry