Just realized something - check your Medicare Summary Notices from the past few months! My uncle had a similar situation and they actually had a tiny note at the bottom of page 3 on his Medicare Summary Notice that mentioned the premium adjustment. Most people never read those things all the way through! Might be worth digging through your mail or logging into your Medicare.gov account to check your recent MSNs.

I'm dealing with a very similar situation right now! Got about $8,500 deposited last month with zero explanation, also related to Medicare Part B premiums. Like you, I called multiple times and everyone says it's mine but won't put anything in writing. What I ended up doing was creating my own paper trail - I've been keeping detailed notes of every phone call (date, time, representative name or ID number, exactly what they told me). I also screenshot my MySocialSecurity account daily to show the deposit is still there and hasn't been flagged as an error. I'm planning to wait about 60 days before spending most of it, but I did use a small portion ($500) for urgent medical expenses to test the waters. No clawback so far. The anxiety is real though - I completely understand your fear about touching the money. You're definitely not alone in this frustrating situation!

I've been trying to reach the SSA for weeks to ask similar questions about my claiming strategy and can't get through. Always disconnected after waiting 45+ minutes! Has anyone found a way to actually speak to someone at Social Security without wasting an entire day?

While calculators are certainly helpful, I'd recommend also considering your broader retirement picture. The best claiming strategy depends heavily on your overall financial situation: 1. Do you have sufficient savings/investments to delay claiming? 2. How does your health and family history affect your longevity expectations? 3. Are you married? Coordinating spousal benefits can significantly impact optimal claiming strategies. 4. Do you plan to work after claiming early benefits? Remember the earnings test may reduce benefits before FRA. 5. What other income sources will you have in retirement (pensions, 401(k), etc.)? The Social Security claiming decision is one of the most important financial choices many retirees make. It's essentially buying a larger inflation-protected annuity by waiting, which has genuine value that many calculators don't fully capture.

Unfortunately, yes - if you were born in 1963, deemed filing applies to you. When you file for any benefit, you'll be deemed to have filed for all benefits you're eligible for, and you'll receive the higher of the two (your own or the divorced spousal), not both. This means your strategy of taking divorced spousal while letting your own grow isn't available to you. The law changed with the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Only people born before Jan 2, 1954 were grandfathered into the old rules. Since you mentioned your own benefit would be higher at 67, you're probably better off just waiting to file for any benefits until closer to your FRA, especially if your earnings from working would cause a reduction under the earnings test anyway.

I'm so sorry to hear about the change in your retirement strategy! The deemed filing rule really did eliminate a lot of flexibility for people in your situation. But don't give up hope yet - there might still be some options worth exploring. Since you're planning to retire at 62 and your own benefit will be higher at 67, you might want to consider: 1. Working part-time until your FRA to avoid the early filing reduction penalties 2. If you do need income before 67, remember that the earnings test goes away completely once you reach FRA, so any benefits withheld due to excess earnings get added back to your future payments 3. Consider doing some Roth conversions now while you're still working and in potentially lower tax brackets, to reduce future RMDs that could push you into higher SS taxation brackets Also, make sure to get an updated benefit estimate from SSA that shows both your own projected benefit and the divorced spousal benefit, so you can see exactly what the numbers look like under deemed filing. The silver lining is that at least you found out about this now and can adjust your planning accordingly!

I'm so sorry for your loss. This is unfortunately a common issue right now. When my grandmother passed away last year, we had a similar experience - SSA continued payments for about 4 months despite multiple reports of her death. Here's what I learned: SSA has been severely understaffed and their death reporting system has major delays. The payments you're seeing are considered "overpayments" and yes, they will eventually demand every penny back. However, they typically don't charge interest if you cooperate and return the funds promptly once they officially notify you. My advice: 1) Keep detailed records of every attempt to contact them, 2) Try visiting your local SSA office in person with the death certificate - this often works better than calling, 3) Set aside all those benefit payments in a separate account so you're ready to return them when asked. The good news is they usually offer payment plans if returning everything at once would cause financial hardship. Hang in there - this bureaucratic nightmare will eventually get resolved.

I went through this exact situation when my father passed away two years ago. The SSA kept depositing his benefits for nearly 6 months despite multiple death reports! What finally worked was going to the local SSA office in person with his death certificate, my ID, and a written timeline of all my previous attempts to report his death. The key things I learned: 1) Always ask for a receipt number when reporting a death - if they can't provide one, the report likely wasn't processed, 2) Keep a detailed log of every phone call, date, time, and who you spoke with, 3) Don't touch those funds - put them in a separate savings account immediately. When SSA finally caught up, they sent an overpayment notice for about $8,000. I was terrified, but they were actually pretty reasonable. They let me return it over 12 months with no interest since I had documented proof I'd been trying to report the death for months. The agent even apologized for their system failures. One tip: if you can get to your local office right when they open (usually 9 AM), you'll avoid the worst of the crowds. Bring multiple copies of everything. Good luck, and I'm sorry for your loss.

I'm in a very similar situation - turning 65 next year and born in 1960, so I'm also affected by this deemed filing rule. What's been most frustrating for me is that I keep finding outdated articles online that still talk about the restricted application strategy like it's available to everyone. I wasted months planning around that before I found out it doesn't apply to me! One thing I discovered that might help you is that you can create a my Social Security account online to see estimates of both your own benefit and potential spousal benefits. It's not as detailed as what you'd get from talking to an actual representative, but it gives you a ballpark idea of which might be higher. Also, if you do end up using Claimyr or getting through to SSA, ask them to explain the "break-even" analysis - basically at what age the cumulative benefits would be equal if you claim early versus waiting. That helped me understand whether delaying made sense in my case.

I'm also dealing with this same situation and wanted to add something that helped me understand the timing better. Even though we can't use the restricted application strategy anymore, the timing of when you file still matters a lot. I learned that if your own benefit will be higher than the ex-spousal benefit, you might still want to delay claiming until age 70 to get those delayed retirement credits (8% per year). But if the ex-spousal benefit is higher, there's no point waiting past your FRA since spousal benefits don't grow with delayed credits. What really helped me was calling and asking the SSA rep to run three scenarios: claiming at 62, at my FRA, and at 70, showing the monthly amounts and total lifetime benefits for each. They could see both my record and my ex's record and gave me the actual numbers instead of just estimates. It made the decision much clearer. Also, don't forget that you need to have been married for at least 10 years to qualify for ex-spousal benefits - sounds like you're good with 22 years, but worth mentioning for others reading this.