Hi Larry,, my birthday is dec 1952,my wife birthday is July 1953,, I’ve been told that I can draw my ss now and my wife can draw 1/2 of mine also without doing anything to her ss. I was also told that the ss administration would give me back ss from January ,, is this true??

Hi,

Actually, since you reached your full retirement age (FRA) of 66 in December 2018, you could file for your Social Security retirement benefits up to 6 months retroactively. In other words, if you applied in March 2020 you could claim benefits starting as early as September 2019. And, yes, Social Security would pay you any back pay due.

Furthermore, since your wife was born prior to January 2 1954 she could file a restricted application just for spousal benefits only while allowing her own benefit rate to grow until age 70. Your wife could also claim spousal benefits up to 6 months retroactively, but no earlier than your first month of entitlement to benefits.

Your wife's spousal rate would be equal to 50% of your primary insurance amount (PIA), and your PIA is equal to your Social Security retirement rate if you had started drawing at FRA. Your monthly benefit rate would be higher than your PIA, though, since you'll receive delayed retirement credits (DRC) for the months that you didn't claim benefits starting with the month you reached FRA. So, your wife's spousal rate would be somewhat less than 50% of your actual benefit amount.

I don't have enough information to be able to tell you whether or not the filing strategy outlined above is the best option for you and your wife. You have a number of other options available to you, and the best strategy depends largely on your and your wife's comparative benefit rates. For example, one of the alternate strategies would be for your wife to file for her Social Security retirement benefits, in which case you could then file for spousal benefits while allowing your benefit rate to grow until age 70. You and your wife should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) so that you can determine the filing strategy that would be the most likely to maximize your benefits in the long run.

Best, Jerry