I'm still working (age 68), am divorced for over 20 years and married for over 10 years (ex-spouse is age 66). I filed online in June 2017 to receive SS benefits through my ex-spouse and requested retroactive benefits. (My plan is to continue to receive his benefit until I reach 70 at which time I will begin taking my benefit.) I began receiving his benefit in August 2017 but didn't receive any notice regarding my request for retroactive benefits. I went into the Malden SS office and met with someone who told me that they didn't have any record of my request for the retroactive benefits, and unfortunately I hadn't made a copy of what I had written in the initial application. She suggested that I submit an appeal which I did in August. I was told that it would take about 3 months and when I didn't hear I called SS to inquire. I was told that it was still being processed and that I should wait another month. A month has passed and still no word. I'm planning on going into the office at this point. Any words of wisdom before I pursue this further? Your advice is very much appreciated!

Hi,

Appeals take varying amounts of time to process, depending on numerous variables. You'll probably just need to wait for a decision at this point.

Actually, though, assuming that you qualified for retroactive payments I don't see why a formal appeal should have been necessary in your case. Either Social Security made an error when processing your claim, or you entered the wrong month of election to start benefits on your application. In the former case Social Security should have corrected their error when it was called to their attention, and in the latter case you could request a different month of election (up to 6 months prior to your month of filing) by submitting a written request for such a change.

If your don't hear about your appeal within a another month or so or if it's not approved, you may want to revisit your Social Security office with a printout of the following section of their Social Security operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204047.

Best, Jerry