I am 70 years old. I worked for a railroad for 30 years and started collecting railroad retirement at age 62; however. I also worked at another company for 18 years paying into social security and recently retired from there. Should I apply for Social Security as well or would my railroad retirement be affected? i didn't think I could collect both but just want to make sure.

Hi,

You couldn't collect both benefits in full. Your Railroad Retirement (RR) benefits consist of 2 tiers. Tier 1 is essentially a substitute for Social Security, and tier 2 is like a company pension. If you file for Social Security benefits, the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) will offset your tier 1 payment dollar for dollar by the amount of your Social Security benefit.

Therefore, you would likely only want to apply for Social Security if your benefit rate would be higher than your tier 1 RR rate. You should be able to find out how much your Social Security benefit would be by contacting Social Security or by using our maximization software. If you don't know already know your tier 1 RR rate, you'll probably need to contact the RRB to find out.

Best, Jerry