Can I collect Social Security at FRA and keep my part-time job with health benefits?

Good news! At full retirement age (66 for you), you can collect your full Social Security retirement benefit with NO earnings limit. This means you can work as much as you want without any reduction in your SS benefits. As for healthcare, since you're still working and covered by an employer plan with 20+ employees, you can delay Medicare Part B enrollment without penalty and keep your employer coverage as primary. Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) is free for most people, so there's no harm in having it as secondary coverage.

I did exact SAME THING last year!!! Started SS at 66 but kept working 20hrs at my hospital job. Had ZERO problems with it and the extra income is SO NICE to have both paychecks coming in. Be careful tho, the SS money might bump you into higher tax bracket so put some aside for taxes!!!! The govt always wants their cut 😡

You should definitely inform Medicare about your employer coverage by completing Form CMS-L564 (Request for Employment Information) and submitting it to Medicare. This documentation ensures your coverage coordination is recorded correctly. Also, when you apply for Social Security benefits, there will be a question about current employment - answer truthfully that you're working part-time. This won't affect your benefits amount since you're at Full Retirement Age, but it helps with proper coordination between systems. Many people successfully work part-time while collecting Social Security after reaching FRA.

my situation was kind of like yours but i waited till 67 to collect. the health insurance part is confusing i know! as long as your employer has more than 20 employees your work insurance stays primary and medicare is secondary. if your company is smaller than 20 people it switches and medicare becomes primary. that tripped up my sister big time

If you've been struggling to reach someone at SSA to discuss this (their phone lines are ridiculous), I finally had success using Claimyr (claimyr.com). It got me through to an actual agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. I needed specific answers about my retirement benefits while working part-time and the agent was able to verify everything for my situation.

Here's another important consideration: When you take Social Security at FRA while still working, up to 85% of your benefits could become taxable depending on your combined income. Calculate your provisional income (adjusted gross income + nontaxable interest + 1/2 of Social Security benefits). If that exceeds $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (married filing jointly), a portion of your benefits becomes taxable. You might want to consider voluntary withholding on your SS payments by filing Form W-4V.

i did this 4 years ago no problems. just make sure to update ur w4 at work so they take out enough taxes. also ur part a medicare card is fine to have. dont sign up for part b until u stop working or u will pay for something u dont need yet

one thing i wonder is does your employer know your collecting SS??? my nephew's boss reduced his hours when he found out he was getting benefits even though that's not supposed to happen

To give you complete peace of mind, call the Medicare Coordination of Benefits Contractor at 1-855-798-2627 to record that you have employer coverage as your primary insurance. This helps prevent claim processing errors. Also, keep documentation from your employer proving your continuous health coverage for when you eventually do enroll in Part B. This documentation will exempt you from late enrollment penalties when you fully retire.

wait i just realized something do you have a health savings account HSA with your work plan?? if you do, once you have ANY medicare (even just part A) you CANNOT contribute to HSA anymore!!! found this out hardway