A final important tip: keep very good records of your earnings throughout the year. I recommend creating a simple spreadsheet to track monthly income, and regularly check it against the annual limit. This makes it much easier when you need to communicate with SSA about your earnings and helps avoid surprises at tax time.

This is such valuable information! As someone who's been considering early retirement with my spouse, this thread has answered so many questions I didn't even know I had. The seasonal work approach sounds perfect for our situation too - we've been looking at summer work opportunities at national parks. It's reassuring to know that Social Security focuses on the annual total rather than monthly distribution. I'll definitely be bookmarking this discussion and setting up that tracking spreadsheet that Carter mentioned. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and knowledge!

UPDATE: We took everyone's advice and tried multiple approaches simultaneously. We mailed in the SSA-1199 form with a voided check, AND used the Claimyr service mentioned above to get through by phone. The phone method worked fastest - got us connected to an agent in about 25 minutes, and they set up the direct deposit immediately. They confirmed it's now in the system and ready for any future payments or backpay if the WEP reform goes through. Thank you all for your help!

As a fellow educator dealing with WEP, I wanted to share another option that worked for me. If you have a local SSA office that offers walk-in services (not all do anymore), you can sometimes get helped without an appointment during off-peak hours. I went to my local office at 2pm on a Tuesday and waited about 45 minutes, but the representative was able to set up my direct deposit on the spot. They also updated my address and verified all my information while I was there. It might be worth calling your local office first to confirm they still accept walk-ins for this type of service request. Having everything ready in one visit was definitely worth the wait time for me.

To answer your specific question about restarting benefits - it's actually quite simple. When you're truly ready to retire, you just contact SSA (preferably 2-3 months before you want benefits to restart) and tell them you've stopped working or your earnings will be under the limit. There's a simple form to complete (SSA-795). The real financial advantage is that at your Full Retirement Age (66+10mo assuming you were born in 1959), SSA will automatically recalculate your benefit amount to give you credit for all the months benefits were withheld due to excess earnings. This effectively increases your monthly payment going forward. So yes, take the job, notify SSA immediately of your expected 2025 earnings, understand your benefits will be withheld, but know you'll get credit for those months later.

Congratulations on the job offer! As someone who went through a similar situation, I'd definitely recommend taking the job. The math works out in your favor even with the earnings test penalties. At $78K income vs whatever your SS benefit amount is annually, you'll still come out way ahead financially. One thing I wish I'd known earlier - when you do reach Full Retirement Age, SSA will increase your monthly benefit amount to account for all those months when benefits were withheld due to excess earnings. So you're not really "losing" that money permanently, just deferring it for a higher payout later. The key is to contact SSA IMMEDIATELY (before your first paycheck if possible) to report your expected annual earnings. This prevents overpayments that you'd have to pay back later - that's a real headache to deal with. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Update for everyone: I appreciate all the advice! I've decided to keep my appointment next month to apply for spousal benefits. Even though the increase might be small, it's still extra money. And if HR 82 or similar legislation passes in the future, I'll still be eligible for any retroactive payments for the period I was collecting my own benefit. Thanks for helping me understand this complicated situation!

Great decision, Daniel! One more thing to consider - when you meet with the SSA representative next month, ask them to pull up your earnings record and verify exactly how many years of "substantial earnings" you have under Social Security. As Matthew and Aurora mentioned, if you're close to 21+ years of substantial earnings, you might qualify for a reduced WEP penalty or even full exemption at 30+ years. This could potentially increase your own benefit significantly, which would also affect your spousal benefit calculation. It's worth double-checking since the substantial earnings threshold changes each year and you might have more qualifying years than you realize from your pre-teaching career.

SSA system is completely broken anyway. Friend of mine tried to do what ur talking about, waited till 70, then the govt changed how they calculate COLA and he barely got more than if hed taken it at normal time. Just take the money now!!!!

Thank you all for the thoughtful responses! After considering everything, I think I'm going to wait until 70 to start my benefits since I'm still earning good income and don't need the SS money right now. The guaranteed 8% annual increase is appealing, and given my family history, I'm likely to live past the break-even point. I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences and knowledge!