i heard we're supposed to get ALL the money back not just some of it??? my neighbor said her financial guy told her it could be like $40k for some people who've been retired a long time with WEP

Thank you all for the helpful information! I'm going to wait until the bill actually passes before making any decisions. In the meantime, I'll try to get through to SSA using that Claimyr service someone mentioned to get official guidance on my specific situation. I've been losing sleep over potentially making the wrong decision, but I feel much better now understanding that I should be eligible for both the retroactive payment AND potentially switching to spousal benefits afterward.

To directly answer your question: Yes, your wife will continue to receive auxiliary benefits as the mother of a minor child when you switch from retirement to SSDI. And yes, her payment will likely increase, though not necessarily by the same percentage as your increase. The technical explanation: When you switch to SSDI, two things happen that affect family benefits: 1. Your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) increases because SSDI doesn't apply the reduction factor for early retirement 2. The Family Maximum Benefit (FMB) is calculated differently under SSDI rules than under retirement rules Generally, the family maximum for SSDI is 150% of your PIA for a disabled worker and one or more auxiliaries. This means if your benefit increases by $675, your wife's benefit might increase by about $337 (assuming you're not already at the family maximum). As others have mentioned, watch for potential disruptions during the transition period. SSA may need to recalculate and adjust payments, which sometimes causes temporary payment issues.

One more thing to think about - when your son turns 16, your wife's benefits will stop until she turns 62 unless she's disabled herself. that surprised us!

To clarify something important from the comments - after you reach Full Retirement Age (which you have at 68), there is NO earnings limit whatsoever. You can work and earn as much as you want without any reduction to your Social Security benefits. This is different from when someone collects early (before FRA) when there are strict earnings limits. Your neighbor may have been referring to the rules that apply before reaching FRA.

Regarding your specific situation, I'd recommend taking these three steps: 1. Request your Social Security Statement online through your my Social Security account or by calling SSA - this will show if your recent work has already increased your benefit 2. File an application for divorced spouse's benefits immediately - since your marriage was over 10 years and you're already receiving retirement benefits, there's no downside to applying 3. Keep documentation of your current earnings to verify that future benefit adjustments are correct While the automatic recalculation happens annually after tax information is processed, it's still good practice to monitor your benefit amount for changes. These recalculations typically happen in October of the year following your work.

does anyone know if this affects disability too? my husband gets SSDI and was going to switch to retirement at full retirement age, but now im worried he wont know what his retirement would be

The RIDICULOUS thing is that they HAVE all this information in their systems!! There's absolutely NO TECHNICAL REASON they couldn't show you both benefit types. It's just bad programming and outdated systems. My neighbor works for SSA and even she admits their computer systems are from the STONE AGE. Our government at work folks!!!

Depends on what your goals are. I went to one of those seminars last year and yeah, it was clearly trying to get me to sign up for financial planning services, but I actually learned a few things about how SS calculates the benefits that I didn't know before. I just said no thanks to the sales pitch at the end and went home with the useful info. Free dinner too lol

To answer your specific question about how much your benefit might increase from part-time work: it varies widely based on your earnings history, but I can give you a rough idea. Let's say you're earning about $30,000 annually from your part-time accounting work. If that income replaces a year in your top 35 where you earned significantly less (or even a year with zero earnings), you might see a monthly benefit increase of $15-40 per month. That's about a 0.5-1.5% increase based on your current benefit amount. Small? Yes. But that's an extra $180-480 per year for the rest of your life, with annual COLA increases applied to that higher amount. Over 20+ years of retirement, that can add up to thousands of extra dollars. And no, there's no form to fill out. The SSA does this recomputation automatically every year after your earnings are reported (usually after you file your tax return). Any increase will be retroactive to January of the year following the work year.