Hi - I retired from the federal government in Nov 2020. I also turned 62 in Nov 2020 and filed to receive social security benefits. I used the MySocialSecurity website to file my application for retirement benefits online and got a letter from SSA in Sep 2020 stating my benefits would start in Dec 2020 and I would be paid around Jan 12, 2021. And monthly benefits would be paid around second Wednesday every month. So far so good. Then I got another letter from SSA around Jan 2021 stating my benefits were being denied because I earned income in 2020 that exceeded the income limits for receiving benefits. I retired in Nov and applied for benefits to begin in Dec 2020. What went wrong here?

Hi,

It sounds like you need to contact Social Security to file an annual report. Since you first claimed benefits in 2020, you can be paid benefits for December 2020 based on the monthly earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/rule.html) provided that you didn't earn more than $1,580 that month. That's true regardless of how much you earned in the first 11 months of 2020.

What went wrong is that Social Security only gets a copy of your 2020 W-2 form, which doesn't show your monthly earnings. Even though you told Social Security when you filed you application that you planned to have no earnings in December 2020, Social Security needs after the fact confirmation of that in order to apply the monthly earnings test. You can confirm that for them by calling and filing an annual report.

Best, Jerry