Ask Larry

When Should I See My 2018 Delayed Credits Added To My Monthly Payments?

I was born in February, 1951. I applied for social security benefits this past Fall and received my 1st check in December 2018. That 1st check only appeared to include my delayed credits accrued through December 2017.

I have read on the Social Security website that "If you retire before age 70, some of your delayed retirement credits will not be applied until the January after you start benefits." I don’t see my 10 delayed credits for 2018 in my January 2019 payment. When should I see my 2018 delayed credits added into my monthly payments?

How would I best contact social security to remedy this?

Thanks!

Hi,

Any delayed retirement credits (DRC) that you accrued in 2018 prior to your month of entitlement to benefits would be creditable effective with your benefit payment for the month of January 2019. Social Security benefits are paid a month behind, though, so your January 2019 benefit is the payment that you'll receive in February 2019.

However, when you apply for benefits between full retirement age (FRA) and age 70 and effective with any month other than January, the computation used by Social Security to credit partial year DRCs is done on an automated schedule. My understanding is that such automated recomputations are only scheduled for every other calendar year, so you may not see any increase until sometime in the year 2020. You would also then be paid any back pay due starting with your payment for January 2019 and following.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Jan 2 2019 - 9:59am
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