My husband visited the SS office this morning. He turns 64 in June, 2017. Using your tool, we determined that the right strategy for us, was a start, stop, start method. We have kids under 18 also. The question is this. The folks at SS insisted that start stop start is no longer an option (I guess since 2015 changes) and no one is allowed to do this. We partly anticipated that from others on this Q&A page, so he even brought in an FAQ from the SSA site that indicated you were allowed to do this. They insisted (this was a supervisor), that is not allowed. The only thing they said was available was a total withdrawal of your application where you pay back all the money received and act like you never filed. I feel pretty confident from your site and my own reading of the SSA material, that it is a viable option still available. So what do we do? I guess maybe it doesn't matter what one clerk and one supervisor says, but it would be nice to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about!

Hi,

By 'start, stop, start', I assume you mean having your husband apply for reduced benefits now, then suspend his benefits at age 66 or later, and then restart them at age 70. He can still do this, however, no one else (e.g. children, spouse) could receive benefits on his record while his benefits are in suspense. This is due to the amendments passed by Congress in 2015 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html).

This may or may not still be a good filing strategy depending on the ages of your children. If you ran the maximization software on this website and this was the recommended filing strategy, your husband should re-contact Social Security and insist on filing.

Best, Jerry