NOVEMBER 2016 • 50PLUS
Maximizing strategy sometimes baffles SSA clerks BY TOM MARGENAU
I’ve received more than a few emails recently from folks who are trying to employ the one remaining Social Security maximizing strategy known as “file and restrict.� These emails demonstrate to me something I’ve long suspected: Employees of the Social Security Administration do a bang up job when it comes to doing routine matters, such as filing a simple Social Security retirement claim. But when things get a little complex, sadly more than a few SSA agents fall down on the job, and sometimes even mislead people. Here are some examples.
Q
: I just turned 66. I am still working and plan to work indefinitely. I want to suspend my own benefits until age 70 and file for spousal benefits on my ex-husband’s record. He is 68 and getting his Social Security already. We were married for 30 years and have been divorced for 10 years. I never remarried. I called Social Security’s 800 number. The agent told me that I cannot file and suspend. She said that filing strategy was eliminated by Congress. I told her that according to your column, I still could do this. She said: “Who are you going to believe? Me? Or a newspaper columnist?� She told me
my only option was to file for my own retirement benefits. I told her I didn’t want to do that. She said there was nothing else I could do and hung up. What should I do? : You should call them back and hope you get a more knowledgeable telephone rep! But when you call back, I’m going to recommend that you use different terminology. If you used the same language with the phone clerk as you did in your email to me, I can partly understand the confusion. You said you want to “suspend� your benefits. Technically, that is not what you want to do. That probably implied to the Social Security agent that you wanted to file for your own Social Security benefits and then immediately suspend them. There are several reasons, not necessary to explain here, why people used to do that. But the ability to use that “file and suspend� strategy ended on April 30. What you want to do is called “file and restrict.� Or to use more precise government-ese, you want to file for benefits, but restrict the scope of your application to spousal benefits only. Near-term retirees still have four more years to implement this file and restrict strategy.
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Attention Wisconsin Seniors!! • Paying too much for your health insurance? • Disenrolled or receiving reduced health coverage by your insurance company or employer?
• Losing health care coverage? • Turning 65?
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