My wife and I signed up to start taking our Social Security benefits last month. Hopefully it will all go through as we planned. A couple of things that we were told in the office were not quite the way we understood they would be after reading your book.

We both wanted it to start in May since that is when Spouse A turns 66. Spouse B will be 65.5.

1. We were told the first payments will be sent out on the 2nd Wednesday of June and every 2nd Wednesday thereafter. Since Medicare started the first month we were eligible, why isn’t the first payment for Social Security going out in May?

2. Since we were still eligible to do a restricted application we waited until Spouse A was 66 and could start taking the spousal half payment amount of Spouse B. Spouse B had to start taking payments before Spouse A could take the half payment. Spouse A’s full retirement benefit would have been more than Spouse B’s full retirement benefit, but we want it to grow to the maximum at Spouse A’s age 70 before taking it. At the office there was no actual “Restricted Application” to sign, but we were assured that Spouse A was only applying for the spousal benefit on Spouse B’s record. Is there an actual “Restricted Application” to sign?

3. If Spouse A passes away at age 68 before taking her own benefit, would the survivor Spouse B be able to switch to the higher Spouse A benefit that would be credited to age 68? Or would the Spouse A benefit revert back to the Full Retirement age 66 amount? Or could Spouse B wait to switch until Spouse A’s benefit would max out when she would have been age 70?

4. Our understanding was that once both spouses are taking there own benefits, it one passes away at age 80 for example the survivor would take the larger of the two benefits currently being received. The agent at the Social Security office said this was not correct. If Spouse A waits until age 70 to start receiving benefits and then passes away, survivor Spouse B would only be eligible to receive a reduced amount of Spouse A’s age 66 full retirement age benefit. Is this correct?

Hi,

Here are my answers in the order of your questions:

1. Social Security pays monthly benefits in the month after the month for which you are entitled to the benefits.

2. No, there is not a 'restricted application' form. To file for one type of benefits without filing for all types of benefits you need to limit the scope of your application to one specific type of benefit. That can be done based on a statement in the remarks section of the application if the application form doesn't contain a specific question asking whether or not you want to also file for another type of benefit (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204020).

3. In the scenario you present, the surviving spouse would receive the higher of their own benefit rate or the rate their deceased spouse would have received had they filed for their own benefits effective with their month of death. A widow(er) cannot receive the delayed retirement credits that the deceased spouse would have accrued after their month of their death even if the surviving spouse delays filing for survivor benefits until the deceased spouse would have reached age 70.

4. No, it sounds like what you were told was not correct. In the scenario you present the surviving spouse would receive the higher of their own benefit rate or their deceased spouse's benefit rate inclusive of any delayed retirement credits that the deceased spouse earned prior to their death.

Best, Jerry