My two cents - make sure when you apply that you specify you want benefits to START in May 2025 (your FRA month), not that you're APPLYING in May. You can actually apply up to 4 months before you want benefits to begin. So you could apply in January or February but specify May as your benefit start month.

Based on everyone's helpful responses, it sounds like you're in great shape! I'm actually in a similar situation - planning to retire next year with a gap before my FRA. One thing I'd add is that you might want to create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov if you haven't already. You can see your complete earnings history there and get an estimate of your benefits. It really helped me visualize how the highest 35 years calculation works. Plus, having that account set up will make the application process smoother when you're ready to file. Good luck with your retirement planning!

I've been fighting this battle for my retired teacher sister for years. Even with the current awful GPO rules, make sure they calculate everything correctly. Get your friend to request a Benefit Verification Letter that shows exactly how they calculated everything. Sometimes they don't apply the correct COLA increases to the deceased spouse's benefit before applying the offset. Also, make sure they're using her GROSS pension amount, not her net take-home after health insurance and tax deductions. I've seen them make this mistake too!

As someone new to understanding these rules, I'm wondering - if your friend does end up being eligible for some survivor benefits now, would she also need to worry about taxes on those benefits? At 89 with limited income from just her teacher's pension, I'm curious if Social Security survivor benefits would be taxable for her or if her total income might be low enough to avoid taxes on them. Just thinking about the overall financial impact if she does qualify.

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! Based on what you're all saying, it sounds like I'd be making a big mistake by claiming now. With my business income well over the limit, I'd get little to nothing now BUT still take that permanent 25% reduction. I think I'm going to wait at least until my FRA when the earnings test goes away, maybe even until 70 for the maximum benefit. Does anyone know if I need to do anything special regarding my investments or business structure in preparation for eventually claiming SS benefits? Or is it just a matter of waiting until the right time to apply?

Smart move deciding to wait! I'm 65 and went through this exact analysis two years ago. One thing to add - since you're actively running a landscape business, you might want to consider gradually transitioning some of the day-to-day operations to employees or subcontractors as you get closer to your claiming strategy. This could help reduce your Schedule C net profit (which counts toward the earnings test) while still maintaining ownership income. Also, double-check that your rental properties are properly classified as passive income on your tax returns. If you're doing significant property management work yourself (more than material participation), the IRS might classify some of that as active business income, which would then count against the SS earnings test. I ended up creating a 5-year plan to gradually reduce my active business income while keeping my investment income steady. It's working out well so far!

I just wanted to update everyone - I followed the advice to contact my Congressional representative, and their office actually called me back the same day! They've assigned a caseworker who's going to send an inquiry to SSA on my behalf. She said they often see cases like mine and that having their office involved usually speeds things up significantly. Thanks everyone for your help - I'll post again when I have news!

I went through almost the exact same thing! $28k overpayment after Ticket to Work, waited 16 months for my appeal. What finally broke it loose was filing a complaint with the SSA Office of Inspector General (OIG) online. You can report fraud, waste, and abuse - and this definitely qualifies as administrative negligence since you reported everything properly and they told you to keep the payments! The OIG complaint form is at oig.ssa.gov and it creates a paper trail that SSA has to respond to. Within 6 weeks of filing my OIG complaint, I suddenly got a call from a supervisor at SSA saying they were expediting my case review. Ended up getting 75% of the overpayment waived. Also - and this is important - make sure you're not just dealing with the 1-800 number. Call your local SSA field office directly and ask to speak to a Claims Specialist about your overpayment case. The phone reps often don't have access to the same systems or authority that field office staff do. Hang in there - the system is broken but there ARE ways to get results if you know which buttons to push!

my neighbors ex died too and she got his benefits and bought a new car with the backpay lol

That's such great news! $530 extra per month is a significant increase. Just wanted to add for anyone else reading this thread - it's worth noting that if you remarry before age 60, you would lose eligibility for these surviving divorced spouse benefits. But since you're already 70, that restriction no longer applies to you. Also, this won't affect any benefits your ex-husband's current spouse (if he had remarried) might be entitled to - multiple people can collect survivor benefits from the same deceased worker's record. Really glad you were able to get through to SSA and get this sorted out!