Applying for Social Security Online: Our Experience

I will soon be turning 64, but want to be as fully prepared as possible when I interact with social security. Knowing that social security will "Provide enough information so that claimants can make informed choices, but do not give advice,",(GN 00203.004 Taking The Claim), I would ask The Community to please respond to my question.
As my full retirement age is 66, I have been paying into ss for the past 10 years,(Former state employee, and retired for the past 4 years), any benefits I may receive will be offset by the WEP/GOP acts. Should I wait until age 70 before filing or do so at 66. I am fortunate enough to be receiving a state pension.

I , too, found it easy to apply for my benefits online. I did get a call from the Missouri SSA office to confirm a few details and to go over a few things such as when to begin my benefits. I found they were much more informative and accurate than my local offices here in Washington, DC. My benefits began on March 28, and so far so good. I did have to take early benefits, due to job elimination. I will be 64 in September and have not yet been hired fulltime. I am working part-time and enjoying that albeit the income restrictions at my age with Social Security. I was able to choose a seasonal part-time job that I have come to love and when it ends at the end of June, I have already been hired for another part-time position with a great office owned by some lovely people. It puts me back in the medical world, and I can stay as long as I wish to work. My Social security benefits certainly help me to survive and I am glad for the relatively easy process and friendly information I was given from SSA.

I applied by phone. The woman I dealt with was so helpful, efficient, and polite that I worried she would be fired if the SS adminstration found out about her. When my husband applied a few years later, he contacted her and had a similar experience.
A month or so after the initial contact, I received a thick envelope in the mail that was a transcript of the conversation, the last page of which contained words to the effect that the wad of pages complied with the paperwork reduction act.

I was told I had to apply in person, as I was applying for survivor benefits on my ex-husband's record. Turns out I could have dropped off documents and completed the application over the phone, but I felt better taking care of it face to face. They did ask lots of questions that I did not expect like 'Where was he living before he died', 'What city did he die in', 'Did he remarry'. These are not always something an ex would know.
They also printed out 'my application' for me in narrative form, lots of text, lots of paper. They said they do not keep a printed copy, only the online information. I had read in 'Get What's Yours: the Secret to Maxing Out Your Social Security' to note in the comments section of the form to exclude my own retirement benefits. As there was no form and so no comments section, I kept saying over and over again that I did not want this to be an application for my own retirement benefits. I was glad to see in the printed narrative I received, there was a statement to that effect. Not sure if that was 'standard' for a survivor 'application' or if it was because of my comments.

Easy peasy. Since I was very busy closing up my office, packing to relocate, and closing on my house, I did it part one night and part another. No problems getting on at 1 a.m. No calls, just a notice online when processed and approved

My own SS Benefit is much smaller than my husbands. I want to collect my husbands SS. To do do I needed to produce a certifiedmarriage certificate to the office or a consulate.

Wise choice to file for benefits online and work from where you have all of your info handy. Like you I filed 3 months before my 70th birthday, however I did not receive a letter or phone call from SS. Instead I went to the local office and filed or should I say attempted to.

It was a real hassle. Not only did they mess up my benefit start date but I did not receive my benefit amount that was estimated on my yearly SS benefit sheet. It only took about 3 visits, 6 phone calls and 8 months to get them to set my correct amount to receive. Whew! Their worker and her managers even said what they first allotted me was a decent amount for my wages over the years. In other words these locals were trying to cut me out of my earned benefit. I still can't believe this goes on so check and recheck what they are doing when you file for your benefits.

Federal withholding taxes aren’t automatically taken out. You have to file IRS Form W-4V. Select the percentage of your monthly benefit that you want withheld from the available choices: 7 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent or 25 percent. Then sign the form and return it to your local Social Security office by mail or in person

Dick Gorman: I am also a state employee who retired at age 61 from Massachusetts but I have also worked as a nurse for 30+ years in the private sector. I did not always make enough to to bypass the windfall elimination but have nearly 25 years where I did make more than the minimum. I am currently working full time as a nurse and hope to continue till age 70--but might not be able to go that long. You should work as long as you can because each year you make more than the minimum to avoid WEP, which is about $23K, you will earn more in social security dollars.

I applied online too. A few days later I got an email from SS asking me to call the woman who was processing my application. I called and she asked me a few questions and to FAX her my last years W2 form, a copy of my SS card, and my latest pay stub. That was it. No birth certificate needed. Two months later I got my first payment. I was amazed at how easy and efficient the process was.

Update from your Editor:

After a bout of telephone tag my case worker left a message. He wanted to let me know that I had the option to claim retroactively going back 3 months, which would mean I would get a nice lump sum payment as well as start collecting right away. Though tempting, I left a message back that my decision was that having waited this long, I might as well wait 3 more months and get the maximum. I based that decision mostly on what I hope is the much longer than average life expectancy I have, as well as that of my (5 years) younger spouse.

Thank you Joanne.

Sue M used the pre-2018 withholding percentages. I believe they were changed to 7, 10, 12 and 22. Our withholding was originally set at 15% 3 years ago. After our post-2017 tax filing advisor meeting, he suggested we lower them to either 10 or 12 by submitting new W-4V forms. We have not done so as yet, but plan to following a meeting at our local SSA office.