Dear Larry,

Thank you for your book, which I am almost finished.

I am 68 years old and have not filed for ss benefits - wishing to get the max at 70 - $3,162)
However, I need to take some benefits now as I'm not making enough to cover expenses.
I was thinking of two possible scenarios:

1) I file now in August and get 5 months x my current monthly benefit of $2773 through December, 2016
2) I file retroactively for 6 months and get 11 months x the lower months benefit of $2,693 through December 2016

In either case, am hoping work will pick up and I was hoping to suspend in January 2017 until my 70th birthday in March 2019 in order to rack up more Delayed Retirement Credits.

I asked SS what the estimated payment at 70 would be in either of these scenarios.

The SS person was trying to figure it out at first, but then she found this:

"Effective April this year, we will not suspend retroactive benefits OR current benefits."

Is this correct? In your book you mainly are talking about people who have already taken benefits and are wanting to suspend, and I don't see anywhere that it mentions people who haven't yet taken benefits but might want to, and who subsequently might want to suspend.

Could you clarify this for me? I have another conversation this Thursday with social security, and would love to be clear on this.

Thank you for your help and of your book.

Best, Jane

Hi Jane,

If you haven't applied for benefits yet, you could file now and receive up to 6 months of retroactive benefits. The new law passed by Congress last year did not change the retroactivity rules on new claims, but did eliminate the ability to request retroactive reinstatement of benefits that are voluntarily suspended after April 29 2016.

So, you still have the option of filing this month and selecting a month of entitlement anywhere from February 2016 through December 2016. If you do that, then want to voluntarily suspend your benefits effective with January 2017, you will need to file your request for suspension no later than December 31 2016. Under the new law, voluntary suspensions may be effective no earlier than the month following the month of the request. And, if you decide to reinstate payments prior to age 70, the earliest that payments may resume is the month following the month of the request for reinstatement ( https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/02182016020549PM).

Of course, receiving benefits for any months prior to age 70 will result in a permanently lower monthly benefit than you would have received by waiting until age 70.

Best, Jerry