Larry
I am 68 as of June-21 and plan to retire this Jan 31-22. My income meets max payout, My wife retired at 62 and collects SSA. I have a 32 yr old disabled son (Autistic-cannot work) who gets SSA thru my wife and some SSI. My wife cares for him. When I retire I have a family max but won't my SSA be a Supplement to what they are getting now up to 50% of my mid point number? For example if my 50% mid point is $1,300, SSA then looks at what my wife and son are getting now and my SSA only "tops-off" their amounts to reach $1300....correct?

Hi. Not exactly. The computations involved are actually more complex than you describe. First off, a disabled adult child (DAC) can only be paid on the record of one parent at a time. Typically, that's on whichever parent's benefit rate is the highest. So, if your primary insurance amount (PIA) is more than your wife's PIA then your son will switch from drawing on his mother's account to your account when you file for your benefits.

Any spousal amount that your wife qualifies for would be a supplement to her own benefit, but the most that she could receive as a spouse would be the difference between her own PIA and 50% of your PIA. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA). If 50% of your PIA is in fact more than your wife's PIA, then the difference would be added to her own reduced benefit amount. Thus, your wife won't end up with total benefit equal to a full half of your PIA.

As for the family maximum benefit (FMB), since your son will be potentially eligible for benefits on both your and your wife's accounts once you start your benefits, your wife's FMB can be combined with your FMB to allow more total family benefits to be paid. Most likely that will allow your son to receive a full half of your PIA, but your wife won't get that much for the reason explained above. Note, though, that it sounds like the increase in your son's DAC amount will be high enough to cause his Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments to stop.

By the way, our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) is fully capable of handling all of the computations involved in a case such as yours. You may want to strongly consider using the software to fully analyze all of your options so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing benefits for your family.

Best, Jerry