Ask Liz Weston

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Social Security

Q&A: Should I name a representative payee in advance?

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Dear Liz: My question has to do with a bulletin put out by the Social Security Administration last year requiring people with Social Security income to submit the name of a person to be their advanced designation representative. It also said that you need to submit a name for your ADR annually. Many people probably don’t know about this. But can you clarify? Is it just a preliminary or mandatory requirement? If mandatory then what are the consequences if you don’t designate someone?

Answer: When someone is a minor, incapacitated or otherwise unable to manage their own Social Security benefits, the Social Security Administration names a representative payee to handle the funds.

The voluntary Advanced Designation of Representative Payee program allows you to nominate people you trust to perform this role should you become incapacitated. You can choose up to three people as possible representative payees. You can change your nominations at any time and Social Security will ask you to review your choices annually to make sure you’re still comfortable with them (because, as we know, situations and people’s capacities can change over time).

If you do opt into the advanced designation program, your nominees won’t be a shoo-in. Social Security will prioritize your choices, but will still conduct a full evaluation to ensure they can handle the job.

Q&A: You can pause Social Security payments

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Dear Liz: Are you allowed to stop your Social Security payments if you choose to make over the $23,000 limit?

Answer: When you start Social Security before your full retirement age, you’ll face the earnings test that reduces your benefit by $1 for every $2 you make over a certain limit, which in 2026 is $24,480.

You can suspend your Social Security payments once you reach your full retirement age. At that point, however, the earnings test will no longer apply.

The money you lost to the earnings test isn’t gone forever. The amounts that were withheld will be added back to your benefit over time. What you have lost is the increase in your benefit that would have occurred had you delayed your application until full retirement age.

You still have one last chance to benefit from delay, however. If you opt to suspend your benefit at full retirement age, you can get delayed retirement credits that will boost your check by 8% for each year between your full retirement age and age 70. For most people, that 24% boost plus accrued cost-of-living increases will be well worth the wait.

Q&A: Early Social Security start doesn’t affect survivor benefits

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Dear Liz: I started collecting my Social Security at age 62 because I had cancer and could not work. My husband is now ill and will pass on soon. Will I still be able to get my husband’s Social Security, which is much higher than mine, when he passes on?

Answer: Yes. Surviving spouses get the larger of a couple’s two Social Security checks. You’ll no longer be able to collect your own benefit.

Q&A: How “deeming” works for Social Security spousal benefits

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Dear Liz: I will be turning 64 next year and my wife will be turning 62. I plan to wait as long as I can to file for my Social Security, hopefully till 70. My benefit at full retirement age (age 67) is around $3,400 monthly and my wife’s is about $1,100. Half of my benefit will always be higher than hers, even if she waits until age 70 to file. Can she file for early benefits next year (around $800 a month), then switch over to half of mine when I finally file? Will the ‘deeming’ rule affect this? Will she actually get half of mine if she files early?

Answer: If you had already started receiving your benefits, your wife would be “deemed” to be applying for both her own benefit and her spousal benefit and would be given the larger of the two. She couldn’t apply for just one, and there would be no switching later.

Because you haven’t started yet, though, the spousal benefit hasn’t been triggered. The only benefit she can currently apply for is her own. When you apply, the spousal benefit will become available and she will be switched to that if it’s larger (which sounds like it will be the case).

Spousal benefits can be up to half of what the primary earner would get at full retirement age, but the amount is reduced when started early. If you apply for benefits before she reaches full retirement age, in other words, her spousal benefit would be less than 50%.

Plus, any benefit started before the applicant’s full retirement age is subject to the earnings test, as described above.

Because so many different factors are at play, it could make sense to use one of the paid Social Security claiming strategy sites such as Social Security Solutions or Maximize My Social Security.

Q&A: How should I receive Social Security survivor benefits?

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Dear Liz: I am 68 and still working. I plan to wait until age 70 to maximize my benefit before taking Social Security. My spouse (born in 1956) passed away in 2018 after just beginning to draw her Social Security benefits at age 62.

Even though I was the higher earner, I believe that I can draw survivor benefits now from my wife’s Social Security if I apply. I also believe that I can switch to my own benefit when I turn 70, and my benefit would then be higher.

But I cannot find an answer to whether, if I did such a switch at age 70, my benefits would be at maximum because I waited until age 70, or would be less than the maximum because I started taking my wife’s survivor benefits or even worse, because my wife started benefits early. I see many articles that dance all around this question but never answer it. Can you please be the one who answers this question?

Answer: Social Security can be incredibly complex, with different rules applying depending on age, marital status and the type of benefit involved. Survivor benefits have different rules than spousal benefits, for example, and both work differently from the retirement benefit people earn on their own work record. You’re smart to want to understand exactly how the rules affect your individual situation before applying.

You are correct that you can apply for survivor benefits now and then switch to your own retirement benefit when it maxes out at age 70. Your retirement benefit will not be reduced because you collected survivor benefits first, or because your wife started her benefit early.

However, your survivor’s benefit will be smaller than it might have been because of her early start. The survivor benefit is determined by what the deceased spouse was receiving at the time of death.

Survivor benefits can begin as early as age 60, or 50 if the survivor is disabled, or at any age if the survivor cares for minor or disabled children from the marriage.

But starting early would have further reduced your benefit, plus you would have been subject to the earnings test, which withholds $1 for every $2 you earn over a certain limit (which in 2025 is $23,400). The earnings test goes away when you reach full retirement age, which for someone born in 1957 is 66 years and 6 months.

There was no benefit to delaying your application past your full retirement age. That means you’ve missed out on several months of survivor benefits you could have been receiving. You can get six months of back benefits when you apply, but that’s the limit.