My husband reached FRA on July 2017. He is employed F/T and plans to continue to work as long as possible. Is there a drawback for collecting social security and continue to work? His current benefits are $2018 and if he continues to work till age 70 they will be $2,800. Would collecting now and continuing to work lock him into the lower benefits ($2018). Many thanks.

Hi,

32% of the increase in your husband's projected benefit rate at age 70 would be from delayed retirement credits (DRC), and he'll only receive that increase if he doesn't take his benefits until age 70.

For example, if your husband's age 66 rate is $2018, his age 70 rate with full DRCs but without considering possible recomputations to credit his additional earnings after age 66 would be roughly $2663 (i.e. $2018 x 1.32). As mentioned, he could potentially further increase his benefit rate by continuing to work and pay Social Security taxes on his earnings. A person's primary benefit rate is calculated based on an average of their highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf).

So, if your husband elects to start drawing his benefits at age 66 he won't get the potential 32% increase in his benefit rate that he would otherwise get by waiting until age 70 to file, but he could still potentially receive rate increases if he earns enough to replace one or more of his previous highest 35 years of earnings.

Before filing, your husband may want to strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website to explore his filing options and determine his best strategy.

Best, Jerry