ColoRetiredGirl wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:32 pm
I contacted the SSA office this morning and was told if I filed after my birthdate (in June) but before January 2022 I was NOT entitled to receive the 8% for June 2022 because I didn’t wait until January to file (68.7 yo). I mentioned filing in November or December. It can’t be this complicated.
I am also in the process of applying (my application is being reviewed for my May birthday, with several years of Delayed Retirement Credits). I believe I have a good handle on how these and the COLA work. A few months back I saw a very convoluted discussion at Reddit in the "Social Security" subreddit about this issue. I believe that some of the replies by poster(s) who are known SSA employees (or retirees) are either incorrect or playing word games. In either case the result of their interpretation is incorrect, IMO.
The point made in the Reddit discussion is that because the applicant has not been getting benefits since January they are not eligible for this year's COLA. HOWEVER...the applicant's PIA will be re-calculated for the current year with this year's COLA included (!) and the DRCs (delayed retirement credits) are added to the "new" PIA. Numerically, the effect is the same... taking last year's calculated PIA plus the COLA or re-calculating the PIA for the current year.
(see that Reddit discussion here
https://www.reddit.com/r/SocialSecurity ... urce=share)
I have been given such misinformation by the main phone line at the SSA during the past several months about my own application that I simply do not trust those who are on the phone.
My suggestion is that you download the SSA's benefit calculator "Anypia32.exe" to your computer, enter your wage history (available on the SSA's My Social Security site ...I'm sure you have that account set up), then you can calculate very accurately what your "old age" benefit should be, the PIA based on this current year (2022).
When I calculated my expected benefit with Anypia32 I matched precisely the "estimated" benefit on My Social Security, including the 2022 COLA. Now this is a unique situation, it matches for me because I am "retired"...not working but not yet collecting SS; normally these won't match for someone still earning wages. Also, note that when you submit your application the "projected benefit" gets yanked off from the My Social Security site, it's gone. I wish I had made a screen print of it, you may want to do so.
There are also several great Boglehead SS calculators, really good ones, but you'll have to hunt in the Wiki for them, too late in the PM for me.
Good luck!
Edit to add: note that there is a rule where the DRCs for the first year are not fully applied. The SSA applies these only in January of each year. So for your first year they will apply any DRCs due to you through December of the previous year. You will get "this year's" DRCs the following January. There are some threads here about that effect, maybe even in this thread. ...oops, yes, this is one of those threads and the discussion you quoted discusses this very issue!