I currently work as County Administrator for a local government. I will turn 66 April 4, 2018. I am paying in to social security and the Virginia Retirement System. My husband worked for csx railroad for close to 30 years. He retired on disability in 2009. Presently i am receiving about $300.00 a month RR Retirement benefits. My question is: I plan to continue to work for several more years, providing my health allow. When I turn 66 in April, will I qualify to also receive social security or the full percentage of my husband RR retirement if i am still working. I know i cannot draw both SS and RRR, which one will i have to apply to? Thanks

Hi,

It isn't necessarily true that you couldn't receive both Social Security (SS) and Railroad Retirement (RR), although you couldn't receive both benefits in full. If and when you file for SS, Social Security will calculate your benefit rate using their normal calculation method (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf), and then they will inform the RR Board (RRB) how much you should be paid in SS benefits. RRB will then determine how much, if any, RR benefits that you can be paid in addition to your Social Security. The basic rule is that you could only be paid the higher of a) your SS benefit rate or b) your Tier 1 RR rate, plus any Tier 2 RR benefits to which you are entitled.

Given what you've stated, your best option may be to wait until age 70 to file for your Social Security benefits. If you do, your Social Security retirement benefit rate will be 32% higher than it would be if you started drawing at age 66. The best part is that you can earn these delayed retirement credits (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/delayret.html) even if you are receiving RR benefits during the period from age 66 to 70.

The maximization software available on this website will allow you compare your Social Security options in order to help you determine your best SS filing strategy, but you would need to check with RRB to find out what effect your SS benefits will have on your RR benefits.

Best, Jerry