Should benefits be refigured if you continue to pay ss after retirement? We owned a business and continued to pay ss after filing for benefits at 66, but our checks continued to be the same amount.

Hi,

Possibly. Social Security retirement benefits are calculated based on a person's best 35 years of inflation adjusted earnings, and can be recalculated annually to include higher years of earnings. So, if your earnings after retirement are high enough to replace one of your previous best 35 years of earnings, your benefit rate should go up.

Remember, though, earnings in the years prior to when you reached age 60 are adjusted for wage inflation, so you are generally credited with a higher than actual amount of earnings in those years. For example, if you earned $50,000 in 1993, and the average wage earner earned half as much in that year than they did in the year you reached age 60, you would be credited with $100,000 in earnings for 1993 in the calculation of your benefit rate. For more information on how retirement benefits are calculated, see the following pamphlet: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf.

Best, Jerry