Will Covid-19 Affect Your Social Security Plans?
Category: Social Security
April 21, 2019 — Deciding when to take Social Security retirement benefits is always a complex question. Now the devastating impact of Coronavirus is making it even harder. Here are some thoughts that might help on a question that always has many possible answers.
The New York Times reports in “Taking Social Security During the Pandemic” that workers in the past decade have shown a steady trend of postponing when they take Social Security, as a way to increase their potential lifetime retirement benefits. Whereas most workers still take Social Security the first chance they get at age 62, to get higher benefits more and more have been waiting to their Full Retirement Age (66-67), or even to age 70. With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic experts are wondering if that trend will stop, or even reverse itself.
Comments on "Will Covid-19 Affect Your Social Security Plans?"
Kate says:
It's not just about Social Security...it's also about whether businesses will reopen and/or rehire people who are furloughed. Many people will be forced into early retirement.
Covid-19 has affected other Social Security claiming decisions too. I currently receive widow's benefits. My own benefit (67) would be about $400-500/mo. more than my spousal benefit. Deferring my own benefit has been an 8% annual gamble, but my family is very long-lived. Right now my budget is met 50% by Social Security, and 50% by a 401K withdrawal. My 401K is down approx. 15% this year. Switching to my own, higher Social Security Benefit will give my 401K more time to recover. I'd be trading 3 years of an 8% increase on the $400-500 additional benefit to age 70, against the potential to recover that 15%+ in my 401K.
KT says:
Has anyone needed assistance from Social Security lately? I'm frustrated! I may switch from my widow's benefit to my own benefit at age 68. Waiting to 70 in a pandemic doesn't seem to be as good an idea as it was when I retired at 65, especially since I live in an area with a lot of cases.
Once I signed up for the widow's benefit, I couldn't access my own benefit on the Social Security website anymore. I'm now within 4 months of my 68th birthday. I just called Social Security to find out my own benefit. After waiting an hour on the phone, a rep told me that she also can't access my record. She said she'd request my earnings record be mailed to me. It could take 2-3 weeks, but she thought my earnings statement might also show my benefit. She suggested I make an appointment at my local office to get my benefit amount, and to file for my benefit.
I looked up my local office online, and there's a notice that they are closed due to the pandemic. So....what are people who need to get into an office doing? I noted a lot of vulnerable people waiting in the reception room during my last visit there. It's very unfortunate if they've lost this resource for an extended period of time.
The rep said she thought they could accept my application to switch to my own benefit on the phone, even if she couldn't tell me the amount of the benefit. (My benefit will be a few hundred dollars higher than my widow's benefit, based on info at age 65 when I retired.)
For what it's worth, I thought I'd share my frustrating survivor's benefit & pandemic Social Security experience with others here.