Q. In the future, will older workers experience more years of disability?
A. If your question refers to workers receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, the numbers have risen along with the increase in the age for full retirement. The full retirement age is now static at 67 for individuals reaching age 62 in 2022 or later. Disability Insurance ends at full retirement age, at which time the disability benefits are converted to retirement benefits.
Q. Do the earnings of your final ten years of employment have any special bearing on your Social Security benefits once you retire?
A. Final years of earnings have no special significance. Earnings prior to age 60 are indexed to bring them up-to-date. Actual earnings from age 60 on are included in the benefit calculation. Benefits are determined on the basis of the highest 35 years of indexed or actual earnings. It does not matter when those years of earnings occur.
Q. My father-in-law is 77. He receives Social Security benefits and plans to marry. His intended receives her deceased husband’s benefits. Do they lose either benefit after marriage?
A. If your father-in-law and his fiancée choose to marry, there will be no change whatsoever in either of their Social Security benefits. Marriage or remarriage never affects a worker’s own Social Security benefit. Marriage after age 60 (50, if disabled) never affects a widow or widower’s right to a survivor benefit based on a prior marriage.
Q. I am 65 and started drawing Social Security; my wife is drawing too. My question is: what are the rules for drawing money out of my IRA? I want to take out around $6,000 to pay credit cards off. How will this affect me? Will I lose my monthly benefits? How about paying taxes on $6,000?
A. Withdrawals from your 401K plan or liquidation of any other retirement assets will not affect your Social Security benefits. The Social Security annual earnings limitation considers only earnings from employment or self-employment. Pensions, interest, dividends, capital gains or other retirement savings are not earnings from new work related activity.
Q. I am 62 and am divorced after a marriage that lasted 15 years. Can I receive benefits on my former husband’s record, even though he is still working?
A. As long as your marriage lasted 10 consecutive years and you are still unmarried, you can qualify for a divorced spouse’s benefit on your former husband’s record at any time after reaching age 62. The fact that your husband hasn’t started receiving Social Security benefits doesn’t matter if he is at least age 62 and your divorce has been final for at least two years.
Q. Is there a way to figure Social Security benefits if one doesn’t work until “normal” retirement age? My wife and I have records of all our contributions, but given our desire to quit our main jobs at 55 — and earn a fraction of our current earnings after age 55 — I have found no good way to calculate our potential benefit at different retirement ages.
A. The Social Security Administration has an on-line benefit calculator. Go to ssa.gov/benefits/calculators. Enter your anticipated future earnings and the calculator will provide a new benefit estimate.
One aspect of Social Security law you may want to consider is that Social Security Disability Insurance is somewhat like term insurance. A wage earner is insured for disability benefits while actively working and for up to five years after ceasing work. Specifically, a wage earner must have Social Security work credits in 20 out of the 40 calendar quarters ending when disability begins. Since you and your wife are considering minimizing your participation in the work force well before retirement age, you should know that you could maintain disability coverage with minimal earnings. For example, in 2022, you earn one Social Security or Medicare credit for every $1,510 in covered earnings each year. You must earn $6,040 to get the maximum four credits for the year.
Q. I took 5 years off from working full-time to raise my child. I am back working F/T again but am wondering how severely this will impact my Social Security benefit? Is there anything I can do to make up any potential benefit loss?
A. The answer to your question depends on whether you will have more than five years with very few or no earnings. If you have only five, then the effect on your benefit should be slight at most. The reason for this is that in calculating a Social Security retirement benefit, the Social Security Administration considers only the 35 highest years during your working history. That said, you will want to make sure you consistently work in covered earnings for the remainder of your career to avoid seeing your Social Security benefit reduced because of years in your computation that contain no earnings or very little earnings.
Q. I am a teacher in Texas and am ready to retire. I have the option of my husband receiving my full benefit or half of my benefit if I should die. How would this affect his Social Security benefits when he is eligible? Would you advise this? He does not have this type of pension, and I don’t want our kids to be burdened when they need to take care of us.
A. A survivor public annuity never affects a surviving spouse’s right to his or her own Social Security retirement benefit. The Social Security Act’s anti-windfall provisions cannot affect your husband’s Social Security benefit because he has not personally earned a public annuity.
Q. I am being penalized under Medicare Part B by paying 20 percent more per month in premiums than I would have paid had I applied for Medicare at 65 instead of 68, even though I was covered by my employer’s health insurance. This doesn’t seem right to me. Comments?
A. You should not be paying a Medicare Part B premium penalty if you had employer-provided health insurance from age 65 until you retired from the workforce. The law grants an exemption from the penalty for any month an over-age-65 worker is covered by their current employer’s health insurance plan or by their spouse’s current employer’s health insurance plan. If you are being erroneously penalized, obtain a statement from your former employer or from the former employer’s insurance company certifying that you were insured by your employer’s plan for months after age 65. Present that statement to your local Social Security office with a request for premium relief. Future premiums will be at the lower rate and all excess premiums paid to date will be refunded.
Q. My wife retired nine years ago at age 62. She has since become disabled. Can she file for disability benefits? If so, how does she go about it?
A. Disability Insurance is available only to wage earners who have not yet reached full retirement age. In effect, Social Security Disability Insurance is an early retirement benefit for persons no longer able to work due to severe disabilities. When retirement age is reached, a disability benefit automatically converts to a retirement benefit. Monthly checks continue unchanged.