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Last week we presented Part 1 of our interview with Mr.Stanley Tomkiel III. Stanley Tomkiel is the author of two books on Social Security, namely Social Security Benefits Handbook and The Social Security Answer Book. Both the books are packed with lots of useful information in simple English. You can read Part 1 of this interview here. Today we present you the second and concluding part of this interview.
Boomer411: Some of the questions and answers in your book imply that at times people do not claim or under-claim their Social Security Benefits. Is this correct? If yes, can you please elaborate on how and in what cases this happens most often.
ST: I have seen that many people do not claim all the benefits that they are entitled to. Usually this occurs in the age frame from 62 to 66 because many people believe that you have to be completely retired in order to collect any Social Security benefits, and that’s not the case. If your earnings in a given month are very low, regardless of the annual income and regardless of whether you have retired, you may be able to get a benefit for that month.
If you have low annual earnings for a given year you may be able to collect some or even all of your benefits for the year. Even if you are working above the yearly earnings limit, currently $13,560, it doesn’t mean that you can’t collect any benefits, only that there will be a reduction in benefits payable. If you are under Full Retirement Age, which is now 66, you lose $1.00 of Social Security benefits for every $2.00 you earn over the limit. So for example if you earn $25,000.00 this year, that’s $11,440.00 over the limit, so $5,720.00 must be withheld from your Social Security benefits. But if your benefits are say, $900.00/mo, that comes to $10,800.00 for the year, (as long as you are over 62 for each month). Only $5,720.00 needs to be withheld, so you can collect the difference, which is $5,080. Most folks I know could put that money to good use rather than let the government keep it.
And for the year you attain age 66, the annual limit jumps to $36,120, only the earnings in the months before the month you attain age 66 are counted, and the offset goes from 2 to 1 to 3 to1. This means that a worker making even $100,000 a year could collect some benefits even if not retired. And beginning with the month you turn 66, your earnings don’t count at all, and you get your benefits even if you’re making a million dollars a year!
Also there is the monthly test that you can use in one calendar year. You get to choose which year it will be. Under this monthly earnings test, even if your annual earnings are too high to prevent the payment of any benefits, nevertheless you can receive a benefit for any month in which your earnings are below the monthly earning’s limit, which is 1/12 of the annual earnings test. If you are laid off for a period, or you take a long vacation, or become ill, or you just don’t feel like working, if your earnings in a given month are below the monthly limit then you can receive a Social Security monthly benefit for such months, no matter how high your annual earnings.
Another case where benefits are lost is in the case of a divorced wife or husband. If you’re divorced at least two years from a SS covered worker, you can receive a spouse’s benefit even if the worker is still working, as long as he or she is age 62. This is called “deemed entitlement.”
Many people don’t realize how to take advantage of these rules. Sadly, they lose those benefits.
Boomer411: Approximately, what is the rough amount in dollars that might go unclaimed per year? What is one category of benefits that is usually ignored or the most unclaimed/under-claimed? If someone forgot to claim, can they go back and make a claim for retroactive benefits?
ST: I cannot approximate the amount of dollars that might go unclaimed in a year because I’m not an economist but some numbers will give you an idea of what we are talking about. There are now 50 million beneficiaries in the United States and the Social Security Administration paid $585 billion in benefits in 2007. In 2008 that will be closer to $600 billion. That comes to approximately $50 billion a month; so even a very small percentage of such high numbers is very significant. About 4 million claims are made each year.
To put it on a personal level the average Social Security benefit is somewhere around $1,000.00 for a worker and $500.00 and change for a spouse; same for a child. I’ve seen people lose several months’ worth of benefits because they missed a filing deadline or were unaware that they could have received something. So, if you don’t know all the rules and don’t make the right moves, you stand to lose thousands and thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately there are limits on retroactivity of applications, so if you file late, you can lose out. The retroactive period for an application depends on the type of benefit. The application of a retired worker under full-retirement age has no retroactivity if it would result in the payment of a reduced benefit. For a retired worker who is above full-retirement age the retroactivity can be as much as six months. Same for most survivor benefits. For disabled workers and their dependents however, there is a 12 month retroactivity period.
One of the most important things a person can do if he or she is approaching social security time is to file a ‘Protective Filing Statement’ with the local SS office. This can be done by mail. Such a statement will protect the filing date without having to make the actual application.
Boomer411: In your intro to chapter 1 in the book, it says, ‘The general intent for retirement benefits was originally to provide a replacement for income lost due to age and its attendant restrictions on earning capacity. In recent years, this has been modified to become an age entitlement program’. Can you please elaborate on this?
ST: Sure. Originally, if a beneficiary was working, his or her benefits were reduced or completely withheld because the program was designed to replace earnings lost due to retirement. They still call the benefits Retirement Benefits. Then the law was amended quite some time ago to allow those age 72 or older to keep all their benefits even if they were still working, no matter how much they earned. In the 80’s this was lowered to age 70, then in 2000 this was lowered again to age 65, which at that time was Full Retirement Age. FRA is now 66. So retirement benefits are paid regardless of earnings once the person reaches Full Retirement Age, which doesn’t have anything to do with being retired, only with being age 66. So instead of replacing earnings lost due to retirement, the SS program pays benefits based on age, so I call it an age entitlement program now.
Boomer411: Can you tell us about the hardest question that you were asked in your role as an SSA claims representative? And how you approached/answered it?
ST: Oh yes. It has nothing to do with rules or forms or required documents. The hardest question has always been: “How can I live on that?” when I would tell a retiree how much his benefit was going to be. Sadly, the Social Security program has been oversold to many people over the years as if it would provide for a comfortable retirement income. It was never intended to do so, being intended only to be about 1/3 of a retirement income, with another 1/3 from private pensions, and 1/3 from personal savings. I felt as if I had hit the poor retiree in the head with a two-by-four! Sadly, I had no answer. The answer should have been asked long before retirement age.
Boomer411: Why should a Baby Boomer read your books? What other information can be found in the books?
ST: Well, I have two books out, The Social Security Answer Book and The Social Security Benefits Handbook. In the Answer Book, I compile hundreds of questions from real people, and give specific answers. I have organized the questions by topic, so for example, if a reader wants to look at questions about Survivor Benefits, or Wife’s Benefits, they are grouped together. I think that sometimes people don’t even know how to formulate a question because they are unfamiliar with basic concepts and terms. So the Answer book helps not only by giving answers in straightforward words, but also to help people know how to ask questions by seeing what others have asked.
The Social Security Benefits Handbook is more like a reference source rather than a read-through type of book. It contains a statement of the rules and procedure of SS in layman’s language, so people unfamiliar with technical terms should be able to find out specific information. It covers not only the applications rules and procedures, and how benefits are calculated, but also so-called “post-entitlement” issues, such as what to do if you are overpaid and the government wants money back, what you must report to SS, what happens if a check is missing or not received, and so forth.
Folks getting close to age 62 should be familiar especially with the application process and the earnings limits rules so they can make sure they don’t miss out on receiving all the benefits coming to them.
And of course, readers can e-mail me questions which I will post on my blog along with my answers.
This concludes our interview with Mr.Stanley Tomkiel III. To learn more about Mr.Stanley and his works or to submit your own social security question to him, please visit the following links.
www.Tomkiel.com
www.SocialSecurityBenefitsHandbook.com
www.SimpleSocialSecurity.blogspot.com
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