If my birthday is 6 Jul and I want to start collecting Social Security at full retirement age do I need to request 6 Jul as starting date or 1 Aug for example. Will that make any difference? Also, if I start collecting 1Aug, do my earnings for that year (Jan through Jul) will count towards retirement or just full years?

HI,

If your birthday is July 6th and you want to start drawing benefits effective with your full retirement age (FRA), you would choose July of the year that you reach FRA as you month of election to start benefits. Social Security benefit payments for the month of July are payable in August, by the way.

If you chose to start drawing your benefits effective with August (i.e. 1 month after FRA) rather than July you would receive 1 delayed retirement credit, which would increase your FRA benefit rate by 2/3rds of 1%. That increase would not be credited immediately, however. You would first be due the extra 2/3rds of 1% effective with your benefit payment for January of the year following the year you reach FRA, but it could take Social Security close to 2 years after that before they would actually process the recomputation to increase your rate.

Your earnings in the year that you file for benefits can be used in the calculation of your benefit rate starting with your payment for the following January. However, those earnings would only increase your benefit rate if that year's earnings are higher than one of your highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings that were used to calculate your initial benefit rate (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf).

Before filing, you should strongly consider using our maximization software in order to compare your filing options and determine your best strategy for claiming your benefits.

Best, Jerry