Hi Larry,
Bought revised Get What's Yours and a subscription to Maximize, and both have been a lot of help. Am now trying to grapple with the SSA-1-BK form before approaching SSA so we have the answers to all of their questions before my husband applies. I am confused on two things:
1) What the heck does Question 10 mean? "Have you (or has someone on your behalf) ever filed an application for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, or hospital or medical insurance under Medicare?" Are they asking if you ever had Medicare under someone else's work record, or if you already have it on your own work record, or both? My husband has Medicare and has waited to 70 to accumulate DRCs before filing for retirement. Should he put YES and his own name & SSN in these fields?
2) On Question 25, since you only have to specify the month you want benefits to start (he was born in mid-October, so he would specify October of this year) in order to avoid losing any DRCs, then is there any reason he should be more specific about an entitlement date in the remarks section? What should his entitlement date be? (It would be great if your report would have a line for a specific entitlement date for those of us who are too thick to get this one.)

Thank you so much for the help - while I had some idea of what we should probably be doing before I ran the software report, it made me feel a lot more confident when the report came to the same conclusion. It is just too much information to comprehend on your own.

Hi,

First off, in practical terms the printed version of the SSA-1 is essentially obsolete. In theory, you could complete and submit the form in order to apply for Social Security retirement benefits, but a Social Security claims representative would then need to transfer that information into an electronic version of the form.

If your husband already has Medicare coverage, then he would answer question 10 'yes'. He could also use that question to report any other Social Security claims that he may have previously filed, such as a prior claim for Social Security disability benefits.

Regarding the question asking which month that your husband wants to start his benefits, if he reaches age 70 in mid October and wants to receive his maximum age 70 rate he should choose October as his month of election to start his benefits. He doesn't need to be age 70 for the full month in order to qualify for his full age 70 rate. No additional remarks are necessary. Again, though, your husband shouldn't actually file his claim via a paper form SSA-1. Instead, he can either file online at https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/, or he can make an appointment to file by phone or in-person by calling 1-800-772-1213.

Best, Jerry