I am 67 and was drawing SS until I suspended payments until age 70 before April 29 of this year. My wife turns 65 on 6/2/16. Under the new rules can she begin drawing a spousal benefit until my age of 70? If so, will this affect the amount of my benefit beginning at my age 70?

Hi,

Dear Larry,
A summary of our situation is as follows:
1) At FRA I started drawing the maximum allowable PIA at that age (66) - July 2014
2) My wife turned 63 in Feb 2016 but has not filed for any SS benefit
3) We still have a fair amount of credit card and other debt that we need to pay off
4) Our rationale for taking the funds at 66 & not at 70 was to try and pay off our debt by age 70

I’ve written about this before and must do so again as Social Security has dragged its feet to issue any formal clarification on the issue. The agency left this issue unresolved, only 16 days from the April 29 deadline.

Author’s Note: The new Social Security law passed last November has forced many (if not most) households to revise their optimal collection strategies. This is particularly the case now that we’ve passed Social Security’s April 29 deadline for providing spousal and child benefits while one’s own retirement benefit remains in suspension. The new law forced me and my co-authors, Paul Solman and Phil Moeller, to rewrite our “Get What’s Yours” book. The revised edition, published by Simon & Schuster, is out today. It explains the new law and how best to adjust to it.

On Tuesday, I described the pending vast changes to Social Security rules included in the House 2015 Budget, which is being rushed through Congress without any hearings or time for public comment.

The bill will reduce the lifetime benefits of millions of Americans by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It will do so, in large part, by inducing people to take their retirement benefits far too early in order make up for the loss of spousal, divorce(e) spousal, child, disabled child, excess widow(er) and excess divorce(e) widow(er) benefits.

Section 831 of the House’s new budget bill would make radical changes to the way Social Security provides spousal and retirement benefits.​

​Let me list all the benefit cuts and other problems arising from this truly draconian bill.