Hopefully this won't be too complicated. Here is my situation. I have not signed up for SSI yet. I lost my job last June 30th. I just turned 65 last December. I still haven’t been able to get employment at this point and it’s not looking good. I have no other significant income. I just went online to check my monthly amount that I would receive at my full retirement age of 66 and it was $2879 a month. First question, will this amount decrease the longer I wait to take SSI, since I only worked a half a year in 2019 and possibly not at all in 2020?

I know if I am working the SSI benefit keeps increasing till age 70, but was wondering what happens if I’m not working.

The big question for me is when should I take SSI? Given the above information and that I have about 3-4 months of funds left for living expenses, before I have to start withdrawing from my retirement account. Of course I am assuming that I don’t find employment in 2020.

Hi,

Your benefit rate won't go down if you don't return to work, but it might not be as high as your estimated amount if your estimate was calculated using assumed future earnings that don't materialize because you've stopped working. Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings, so if 2019 & 2020 aren't among your highest 35 earnings years then they simply won't be used to calculate your benefit rate (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf). In other words, your benefit rate can't go down due to a low or zero earnings year, but it likely won't increase much if at all either.

Your benefit rate would increase by 8% per year for every year you delay drawing your benefits between full retirement age (FRA) and age 70, regardless of whether or not you have earnings during that time. The 8% increases result from delayed retirement credits (DRC), which are unrelated to a person's work and earnings. However, you could potentially increase your rate even further if you work after FRA and your earnings are high enough to be among your highest 35 years of earnings.

You must decide for yourself when to start drawing your benefits, but you should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to compare all your various options so that you can make an informed decision.

Best, Jerry