Can I Still Work And Receive Social Security Retirement Benefits?
You may have questions regarding working while receiving Social Security benefits. There are factors that feed into this that will affect your payments. These factors include both your age and the amount of money that you’re earning.
What Age Has To Do With It
- You can apply online if you are at least 61 years and nine months old and you want benefits no more than four months in the future.
- Your full retirement age is usually between the ages of 66 and 67.
- You can start receiving benefits between age 62 and age 70.
- Monthly benefits will be less if you start them before your full retirement age.
- You can receive delayed retirement credits if they start after your full retirement age.
How To Receiving Benefits While Working?
- You can work while receiving Social Security retirement benefits. This could also mean a higher benefit for you in the future.
- Your benefits are recalculated depending on your income. Each year records are reviewed. If your earnings for the year before are higher than the year that was used to compute benefits, the benefit amount is recalculated.
- If you’re younger than full retirement age for the entire year, one dollar is deducted from your benefits for every two dollars that are earned above the annual limit. The limit this year is $16,920.
- During the year in which you reach full retirement age, one dollar is deducted for every three dollars that you earn above the limit. For this year, the limit is $44,880, but earnings are only counted the months before you reach full retirement age.
- Once you reach full retirement age, your earnings no longer reduce our benefits. You can earn as much as you want! The benefit amount is also recalculated to leave out months when these were reduced because of excess earnings.
- If you work outside of the U.S., these rules are different. See this page for more information on that: Work Outside the United States.
- If you aren’t receiving benefits already, be sure to contact the SSA at the beginning of the year in which you will reach your full retirement age. If you are still working, it’s possible that you may be able to receive either some of all of your benefits during the months before you reach your full retirement age.
It is possible to continue working while you’re receiving benefits. Take note of the circumstances above to make sure you’re following the proper procedures during this time. You don’t have to give up working or hesitate on starting something new.
Thank you for reading our blog! Contact us if you have any questions in regard to the information above.
