Thank you all for the helpful information! I just wanted to provide an update - I called SSA again and specifically asked about the "grace year" rule. The new representative confirmed what you all said - only my November and December earnings matter for 2025, and since I earned less than $1,850 in each of those months, I won't have any benefits withheld. She apologized for the confusion from my previous call. Such a relief! I appreciate this community so much.

Just to add my two cents - I know several people who've dealt with earnings limit issues and it's almost always better to proactively contact SSA if you think you might exceed the limit rather than waiting for them to catch it later. If they determine there's an overpayment after the fact, it can be much more stressful to deal with.

I went through this exact process last yr. They told me the same thing about only getting a small amount when I first applied. Turns out there's a HUGE reduction when you take your own benefits early AND then try to get divorced spouse benefits. The math gets complicated. Basically, they look at the difference between your reduced benefit and 50% of your ex's FRA benefit (which is also reduced because you filed early). For most people, that difference is tiny. But here's what nobody tells you - they'll recalculate when your ex actually files! So even though you can apply before he files (since you're divorced >2 years), you might get a different amount after he files. It's worth applying now anyway just to get in the system.

One more important detail - alimony has no effect on your Social Security divorced spouse benefits. They are completely separate programs. Your eligibility for divorced spouse benefits is based on: 1. Marriage lasting at least 10 years (yours was 25, so you qualify) 2. Being at least 62 years old (you are) 3. Being currently unmarried (you mentioned staying single for alimony purposes) 4. Your ex being eligible for benefits (at 66, he is) The reduction in your benefit is purely mathematical - it's about when you filed for your own benefits (at 62) and how that affected both your own benefit amount and any potential divorced spouse benefits. At this point, I would recommend filing for the divorced spouse benefit even if it's small. There's no advantage to waiting since your ex's delayed retirement credits won't increase your divorced spouse benefit.

The only reason to wait until January would be to get a slightly higher monthly benefit (about 2/3 of 1% more) for the rest of her life. It's a trade-off between getting one extra payment in December versus slightly higher payments forever. If she lives long enough (about 12-13 years after starting benefits), the January start date would provide more total benefits over her lifetime.

Thanks that makes sense! I always forget about that monthly increase thing.

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! This clears up a lot of my confusion. I'm going to take that consulting job and not worry about an earnings limit. I'll talk to my tax person about possibly making estimated quarterly payments to cover the extra income and maybe adjusting my withholding on my Social Security benefits too. Really appreciate all the explanations!

I just wanted to apologize for my earlier response. I was confusing the rules before and after FRA. My husband was still 6 months away from his FRA when he went back to work, which is why he saw a reduction. Thank you to everyone who provided the correct information!

Thanks everyone for the helpful information! I talked with my husband about all this, and we're going to look up his exact pension amount and do that GPO calculation to see what we're dealing with. Sounds like if the Social Security Fairness Act ever passes, we'd be in much better shape, but we shouldn't count on that happening anytime soon. I guess I'll go ahead and file for my benefits when I turn 70 in December, and then we can apply for his spousal benefits after that. At least the survivor benefits might help him somewhat if I pass away first, even with the GPO reduction.

I heard you need 10 years of work to get ANY SS benefits at all, so if he's only got 29 quarters (about 7 years) doesn't that mean he's completely out of luck for his OWN benefit regardless of this GPO stuff? That's what happened to my aunt.