Beware of incorrect advice about claiming Social Security benefits

Social Security Administration field offices were closed for more than two years during the pandemic. Most of the 60,000 employees worked remotely, dispensing advice by phone or online. Although SSA reopened its more than 1,200 field offices to the public for face-to-face meetings in April, there's still a huge backlog of unfinished business and frustratingly, some faulty guidance being provided by well-meaning but ill-informed agency representatives.

One reader, Marie, appealed to me for help after she contacted SSA by phone about filing a restricted claim for spousal benefits so she and her husband could maximize their lifetime Social Security benefits.

Marie’s husband was born in 1953 and is eligible to claim spousal benefits on Marie’s earnings record once she files for Social Security. That would allow her husband’s own retirement benefits to continue to grow by 8% per year up until age 70, when he would switch to his maximum retirement benefits. Marie was born in 1956.

But when Marie asked the Social Security telephone representative how she and her husband could execute the claiming strategy, she was wrongly told that both spouses had to be born on or before Jan. 1, 1954. Not so!

“The SSA representative is wrong,” I wrote to Marie in an email. “Claim your benefits online at www.ssa.gov."

I offered her the following instructions: “Once you file your claim for retirement benefits online, have your husband apply for his benefits online. When he fills in the online application with his name, date of birth, marital status and Social Security number, the form will recognize that based on his date of birth and marital status, he is eligible to file a restricted claim for spousal benefits. A prompt will ask: If you are entitled to your own retirement benefit and that as a spouse, do you want to collect spousal only? Click yes.”

I’m speaking from personal experience. That’s how my husband and I coordinated our Social Security claiming strategies. I claimed my benefits when I reached my full retirement age of 66 in 2020, the point at which earnings restrictions no longer apply. Once I filed for my benefits online, my husband filed a restricted claim for spousal benefits online to collect an amount equal to half of my full retirement age benefit amount. When he turned 70 earlier this year, he filed a new application online for his own maximum retirement benefit.

You can file for benefits online up to four months before you want those benefits to begin. Benefits are paid the following month. For example, my husband wanted his benefits to start in March when he turned 70 years old. His first benefit was paid in April.

One of the silver linings of the pandemic was that the Social Security Administration increased the number of tasks that consumers can accomplish online. Today you can apply for retirement, disability and Medicare benefits online, check the status of an application or appeal, request a replacement Social Security card in most states, print a benefit verification letter from anywhere and from any of your devices. However, survivors can’t apply for benefits online and must contact SSA via its toll-free phone number (800-772-1213) or use the field office locator to find the phone number of their local office by zip code.

There's also an enormous amount of information available at www.ssa.gov. You can review your earnings history and your latest estimated benefits statement and use various calculators to estimate your future benefits and the impact of earnings if you claim benefits before your full retirement age. There's a virtual library of publications to explain benefits and rules for married couples, divorced spouses and families with minor or disabled children, and how offset rules affect some public-sector workers.

But some parts of the Social Security workload are still stuck decidedly in the 20^th century.

A recent audit report from SSA’s Office of Inspector General found that the agency’s decision to limit in-person services during the pandemic increased the volume of, and SSA’s reliance on, mail, as only a small number of employees remained on-site at SSA offices.

On-site employees must open and scan program-related mail into a workload management system. Once it's scanned, remote employees can assign and process the electronic documents. The on-site employees must also mail documents printed in the office.

In July 2021, the OIG issued an interim report that identified a large backlog of unprocessed mail and recommended corrective action. The latest OIG report, issued in May, recommended additional changes that could reduce manual work by investing in software or equipment and outsourcing mail duties to contractors. The OIG also recommend that SSA reduce the volume of mail it sends and receives, including original documents, forms and correspondence.

The bottom line: Take advantage of technological innovation to apply for Social Security benefits online whenever possible to minimize the chance of human error.

(Questions about new Social Security rules? Find the answers in Mary Beth Franklin’s new 2022 ebook at Maximizing Social Security Benefits)