Posted on 07/14/2014 3:31:29 PM PDT by ilovesarah2012
I applied for Social Security online on June 9, three months before my 62nd birthday. I have not heard anything and when I check online, it says no decision has been made yet. I called and wen through the prompts just to be told no decisions had been made and I could "hold" for a representative. I held for about 15 minutes but had to go to work and haven't tried to call back.
I want to give my notice at work but not until I am sure I will be receiving my money.
Just looking for others' experiences with Social Security.
Thanks.
It depends on how you voted in 2012.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
I started drawing mine ,a little over a year and a half ago .They ,government, can’t seam to get the correct amount right from one month to the next . It may very from 10 - 30 dollars each month.
Hubby turned 62 in January and got his first check the end of March. They pay a month behind. I knew this because I have a friend that works for Social Security.
There is some info here. Your benefit level is based on your 35 highest-earning years. It appears some sort of inflation adjustment is applied ("Your actual earnings are adjusted or “indexed” to account for changes in average wages since the year the earnings were received."). You can see a couple of hypothetical examples here.
Beyond that, your actual benefit level depends on how long you wait to start collecting, increasing approximately 8% a year between age 62 and 70. If you are still working, you should probably wait until age 66 at the earliest, since before then, your benefit decreases if you have other income.
There are online benefit calculators, where you can enter your information and see an estimate of your benefit. Also, there is an offline calculator, an app that you download, which runs on Windows and Mac. The offline calculator is also available as C++ source code.
I was already retired and made a phone application through the embassy. No problem...
The problem might be you are working and don’t have a planned day to quit.
Relax. The IRS is looking into it.
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Off topic... I received a letter from the IRS today (Mon). I didn’t open it for about 8 hours, as I figured it was something about an audit or more money due to them.
Shock! It said they were sending me a refund check for about $2900 because I made a mistake on calculating my SS income tax and they applied a standard deduction amount due to my age, etc., instead of the itemized deductions I had used. (I had paid my mortgage off 10 years early in April).
Back to topic... I was let go by my long term employer when age 59. Went 9 months with ZERO income, just living off of savings until my pension checks started. Two years later, I applied for SSA benefits a couple of months before age 62 and had to send my birth cert. and something else to them. I received them back in the mail about a week later, along with a letter saying I should receive my first check a month after turning 62. Everything has worked like clock-work since then.
I chose to start SS at 62 for two reasons: I’d known too many older employees who held out for age 67 and died within a couple of years; ...and, because I needed the income at the time and figured I’d draw more over a longer period of time, even though it was a lower figure. That $1700 check hits my bank account every month and I’m almost 72 now.
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