Dear Rusty: I am 74 years old, retired and receiving Social Security (SS). My wife will be 65 in January 2025. Our hope was to start paying off some credit-card expense by her receiving SS when she turns 65. However, it appears there would be a substantial reduction to her benefits. Her work income is […]
Dear Rusty: I am 74 years old, retired and receiving Social Security (SS). My wife will be 65 in January 2025. Our hope was to start paying off some credit-card expense by her receiving SS when she turns 65. However, it appears there would be a substantial reduction to her benefits. Her work income is $37,500 a year, and she wasn’t planning on retiring from work at age 65. Because I am 11 years older, we felt it makes sense to use her Social Security as a means to lower our debt. We have $27,000 in credit-card debt, and I don’t really want to use my 401(k) funds due to taxes. We pretty much live on my Social Security and pension.
Signed: Seeking Suggestions
Dear Seeking: Your wife’s full retirement age (FRA) for Social Security purposes is age 67. Because she will not yet have reached her FRA in January 2025 (when she is 65), if she claims SS to start at that time, not only will her monthly amount be reduced, but she will be subject to the Social Security annual-earnings test. The earnings test sets a limit for how much can be earned by beneficiaries who claim SS before FRA.
The earnings limit for 2024 is $22,320. The limit for next year is not yet published (it’s based on changes to the national wage index) but will be a bit higher — likely about $23,500. Thus, I can’t provide the exact impact, but if your wife’s 2025 earnings exceed next year’s limit, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will take back $1 in benefits for every $2 over the limit (half of the amount over the limit). So, if your wife earns $37,500 per year, that will likely be about $14,000 over the limit and the SSA will take back half of that ($7,000). It “takes back” by withholding future benefits, or you can repay the SSA in a lump sum. So, you will have a choice — repay the SSA from your other assets, or it will withhold your wife’s SS benefits for the number of months needed to offset her penalty for exceeding the earnings limit. The number of months the SSA will withhold depends on how much is owed and what your wife’s monthly SS benefit is. For example, if your wife’s age-65 SS benefit is about average ($1,900) and her penalty for exceeding the limit is $7,000, the SSA would withhold your wife’s benefit for four months to recover the penalty, but she would receive her full benefit for the remaining eight months of the year.
Unless your wife tells the SSA in advance that she will exceed the limit, the agency will find out the following year (after you file your income taxes). But, in any case, your wife cannot avoid the annual-earnings test for working before reaching her full retirement age. The earnings test goes away when your wife reaches her FRA of 67. Until that time, if she continues working, she will have a choice to have her benefits withheld for a portion of the year, or simply repay the SSA in a lump sum (in which case her benefits would continue uninterrupted).
FYI, there is a silver lining in this. If your wife has benefits withheld because she exceeds the earnings limit before her FRA, after she reaches her FRA, the SSA will give her time credit for the months when benefits were withheld. This will result in her monthly Social Security payment amount increasing somewhat at her full retirement age. Thus, over time, your wife may recover the benefits that were withheld for exceeding the annual-earnings limit. But to get 100 percent of the benefit she’s earned from a lifetime of working, and be exempt from Social Security’s earnings limit, she would need to wait until she reaches her FRA to claim.
Russell Gloor is a national Social Security advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2.4-million-member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org.
Author’s note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). The NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.
Russell Gloor