Hi Larry,

Just want to say thanks for your previous response to my question. I went ahead and purchased the software, and after plugging in the numbers and running the scenarios, it appears that Child-In-Care Spousal benefits are the way to go for the biggest benefit now. This will allow my retirement benefit to grow until I am age 70.

I have a new question for you. To refresh a bit, I filed an application for my retirement in November 2018 to claim at age 62. My first month of eligibility was January 2019. To date, I have received nothing. The local Social Security office has told me in phone conversations that it appears my Child-In-Care benefits were incorrectly suspended when my youngest child turned sixteen. He is not the disabled child who continues to live at home. My older daughter is the one who is disabled and still living at home. My spousal C-I-C benefits were suspended in July 2008. In researching this online, it appears I am one of the "Beneficiaries Whose Payments Have Been Suspended for No Child in Care and Who Are Serving as Representative Payees for Children" referred to in The Office of the Inspector General for SSA's February 2017 report.

Social Security is now telling me that I need to withdraw the retirement application. I specifically told the technical expert working my case that I wanted to make sure that the accrued benefits I would be entitled to since February are not lost in the event Social Security won't go back and reactivate my previous Child-In-Care benefits. While I understand a reactivation of those benefits will most likely result in my children having been overpaid years ago, I was told they would take that money off of what was owed me.

Yesterday I received the Request for Withdrawal of Application, and it simply states, "I want to receive spouse with child in care benefits on my spouses record and his ssn" I feel like something more needs to be stated on this withdrawal request to protect myself from losing out on the months of benefits I have already accrued. Who calculates this benefit in the event I am eligible to receive retroactive benefits? Is this done in the local office or somewhere else?

Do you have any thoughts about how this should be handled? And since I have always been my daughter's representative payee, do you think they will go back and reinstate this benefit? I just feel like that is almost too much to hope for, but I certainly have been waiting long enough, and don't want to lose the benefits payable February - July simply because everyone has been too busy to let me know I should have filed for Child-In-Care Spousal benefits instead of Retirement benefits. If I hadn't found out the name of the person working my application, I am guessing I would still be waiting to find out what is going on.

Finally, if I have been incorrectly advised by the technical expert regarding this withdrawal, do I have any recourse?

Thank you,
Chris

Hi Chris,

I really can't properly advise you based on limited information. The Social Security technical expert with access to your family's records is in a much better position to be able to analyze your case. You could add a statement on your withdrawal request saying that your request is conditional based on the presumption that your child in care benefits will be reinstated. I'm not sure that Social Security will accept a conditional request, though.

The fact that you've been acting as representative payee for your daughter is important, because it indicates that Social Security has established that your daughter has a mental impairment. And, if your daughter has a mental impairment requiring a payee and she's lived with you and qualified for child or disabled adult child benefits continuously, then you should meet the child in care requirement for spousal benefits (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301310035).

If you withdraw your application for Social Security retirement benefits and for some unknown reason your child in care benefits aren't eventually reinstated, you technically couldn't claim reduced retirement benefits any earlier than the month that you reapply for them. However, if it's clear that you withdrew your application based on Social Security's assurance that you would qualify for spousal benefits then they should be willing to use a deemed filing date to permit retroactivity (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204008#e). That's theoretical speculation on my part, though, so I can't give you any guarantees. One thing that's certain is Social Security won't reinstate your spousal benefits for any months that you are entitled to higher retirement benefits on your own record, so they aren't going to reinstate your spousal benefits for this year unless and until you withdraw your retirement benefit application.

Calculations involving retroactive reinstatements aren't done at the local office level. Social Security has 8 payment centers throughout the country that have jurisdiction for those types of calculations. One payment center handles only disability claims, one is for international operations, and the other 6 handle retirement and survivor claims. Which payment center has jurisdiction is determined by the Social Security number of the worker on whose record the benefits are paid.

Best, Jerry