My husband is 59 (full retirement age is 66 and 8 months) he wants to retire in June 2020 at 62.His full retirement amount is $2434 and early is $1755. I did not work enough to claim under my own record.I turn 62 in Feb. 2021. We have an adult disabled daughter (disabled since birth currently receiving SSI) that will apply under dads record. I have gotten the run around from SSA they won't tell me what the family maximum is and what her and I will get. I believe I am considered young spouse since I am her primary caregiver. I should collect before I turn 62 right? I have asked SSA what Family Maximum is and they say its complicated and they don't give that info out till retirement application is processed. Many reps I spoke with don't even know bout FMC or Young Spouse.I calculated our FMC as $4259.92.So if I subtract my husband's $1755 that leaves $2504 to split between me and my daughter resulting in $1252 each. Is that correct? Or is our payment reduced because of husband taking early retirement. cannot get any clarification from SSA, I even went to a SSA workshop which was useless. When my daughter was 18 and I applied for SSI SSA ripped her off $4500 over 3 years and only would pay back 1 year so she lost $3000.SSA website even states they make wrong calculations and that results in under and over payments.I am under the impression that my daughter and I split FM after my husbands early amount is subtracted.Also can all three of us apply at same time for benefits under my husband (we will apply at a local office) .Please I need help ASAP and I don't trust SSA.Thank you so much.

Hi,

If your husband's full retirement age rate (PIA) does turn out to be $2434, the family maximum benefit (FMB) payable on his record would likely be 175% of that amount, or roughly $4259. Regardless of when he starts taking his benefit, his full PIA would be subtracted from the FMB when determining the amount left over to potentially be distributed to eligible family members. That would leave around $1825 to be split between you and your daughter, or about $912 each assuming that both of you qualify for unreduced benefits. In order for you to qualify for unreduced spousal benefits before full retirement age you would have to meet the requirements for child in care benefits. The rules for that vary depending on the type of impairment involved, so you may want to review the following sections of Social Security's operation's manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301310035 & https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301310040.

If you do meet the requirements for child in care benefits, you can start drawing them as soon as your husband starts drawing his benefits, regardless of what age you are at that time. And yes, you could all file at the same time, although your daughter would need to be approved for her benefits before either her or your claims could be awarded.

By the way, the reason that Social Security employees are probably hesitant to quote you a benefit amount is because of the calculation method used to compute retirement benefits and the FMB (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf). Both are contingent on the indexing of earnings based on a future year's average annual wage, making it impossible to precisely determine the amount of your husband's benefit rate and his FMB until shortly prior to the calendar year in which he turns age 62. However, you can use the maximization software available on this website in order to obtain the most accurate possible estimates of your family's potential benefit rates.

Best, Jerry