I just read two, what I think are contradictary responses from you/your staff. In one, Larry I think, explained what Larry referred to as a misconception to the writer. He said, you are due benefits the monrh you are born (exception born first of month). Example, born in January, benefits psid in arrears in Feb.
in another response, Jerry (or Mike) responded that you have to be, in his example, 62 for the entire month (unless born first or second of month he said). So if born mid-month, then eligibility is the following month with benefits paid the month following that. His response provided a link to some SSA info that made no sense to me.
I was born Jan 8, 1952 the SSA calculator says my eligibility FRA is Jan, 2018. This coincides with Larry’s answer.
Why are their what appears to be conflicting answers being provided? Specifically, when is someone eligible? Do they have to be 62 or FRA for an entire month or is a partial month considered eligible(I am not referring to month of death benefits-those are must be alive whole month).

Hi,

There's no contradiction in the answers you've cited. The explanation is that you can't be paid Social Security retirement benefits for the month in which you turn age 62 unless you were born on the 1st or 2nd day of a month. Social Security requires a person to be a minimum of age 62 for an entire month in order to qualify for retirement benefits. Since they count a person as reaching their next age on the day prior to their birthday, being born on the 2nd day of a month fulfills the 'throughout the month' requirement.

However, this is not an issue if you file after age 62. For example, if you were born on March 31 1955 and wish to claim benefits effective at age 63, you can be paid for the whole month of March 2018. Obviously in this case you would already have met and surpassed the minimum age requirement.

Since you were born on January 8 1952, you first met the minimum age requirement for retirement benefits in February 2014. Therefore, you would have been eligible to claim retirement benefits starting that month or any month thereafter. If you want to claim benefits effective with your full retirement age of 66, you would choose January 2018 as your month of election to begin benefits.

Best, Jerry