Hi Larry!
Update on my question: Is Social Security just forgetting the January 2, 1954 rule for spousal benefits??!

After looking for the documentation we requested to prove that my other was eligible for the file & suspend strategy despite her birthday after 1/2/54, the representative contacted my mother and explained that WE WERE RIGHT. The rep was pretty frustrated as he had ran this by two superiors ("attorneys" he called them, but who knows) who cleared the strategy. He admitted that his office has approved this strategy for many filers this year, IN ERROR. No telling if caught, if the errors will be found in favor of the filers. For those filers, I'm hoping they are but for my mother's sake, I hope they are not, or she will have missed out on the extra cash! Wow- what a lesson in the understaffing and poor training at multiple levels. If you have any advice on how to make this known by the Administration, I will definitely make a point to reach out to them. Thanks for making me not feel crazy during this process!

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your story with other readers. Your story illustrates why it's important to know your rights before applying for Social Security.

For other readers, the earlier part of this story can be found in the Q & A posted below:

Hi Larry,
Is Social Security just forgetting the January 2, 1954 rule for spousal benefits??!
I’m fairly certain my mother is being misinformed my her local SS office and it’s making me angry. Her birthday is 2/12/1954, she was married 10 years, divorced, not remarried. My father (her ex) is currently collecting benefits. She has earnings history similar to, if not slightly greater than, my father’s. The rep at her local SS office has stated now multiple times (I was on one such call) that she IS ELIGIBLE to collect 50% of my father’s benefit (and retroactively for 6 months) and still earn delayed retirement credits on her record. He claims this is because she is full retirement age in 2020... period. We would only have her collect now IF she truly is eligible for file and suspend. Otherwise, she plans to wait until 70 for her own benefit. My HOPE is that the system will correct him if he’s wrong, which I suppose we will know if her 1st check is greater than 50% of my father’s. Should we complete her application and find out or are we in danger of her filing for her own benefit, which we do not want!

Hi,

What the Social Security representative told you is wrong, and if your mother files for divorced spousal benefits she'll be deemed to be filing for her own Social Security retirement benefits effective with the same month. She would then only be paid the higher of the two benefit rates, and she would not accrue any further delayed retirement credits (DRC). Only people who were born prior to January 2 1954 can apply for divorced spousal benefits without being deemed to also be filing for their own benefits at the same time, and even they can only do so at full retirement age (FRA) or later.

You may want to advise the Social Security representative with whom you spoke to carefully read the following section of Social Security's operations manual regarding deemed filing (i.e. RS 00204.035 B.1: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204035. You may also want to ask to speak to the person's supervisor to advise them about the misinformation you received.

Best, Jerry