Confused about divorced spouse Social Security benefits - did I mess up by taking my own benefits at 66?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are a few misconceptions here we should clarify. First, the "top-off" you're receiving is just how divorced spouse benefits work - you receive your own retirement benefit, and if 50% of your ex's benefit is higher than your own, you get the difference as a "top-off." Unfortunately, once you've filed for your own retirement benefits, you can't go back and change your filing strategy. The option to take ONLY divorced spouse benefits while letting your own grow (called a restricted application) was eliminated for anyone born after January 1, 1954. Since you're turning 67 this year, you were born in 1958, so this option wasn't available to you. As for suspending benefits for delayed retirement credits - you can only suspend your own retirement benefit, not the divorced spouse portion. And since you're already receiving both, suspending at FRA would stop ALL your benefits, not just the "top-off" portion. The one positive thing is that if you're still working, your continued earnings might increase your benefit slightly if they replace lower-earning years in your 35-year calculation.

my sister had almos this EXACT situation!!! she was so mad when she found out she could have gotten more. she tried calling ssa for like 3 weeks straight and finaly got someone who basically said tough luck, once u file ur stuck with it. so frustrating!!!

wait I'm confused about something. you said you're 66 turning 67 in December? but then you said you started collecting in February? February of what year? cuz if it was this year you haven't lost much yet right? can't you withdraw your application within 12 months?

There's one strategy you still have available. Since you're not yet at your Full Retirement Age (FRA), when you reach it in December, you could voluntarily suspend your own retirement benefit until age 70. This would allow your benefit to earn delayed retirement credits of 8% per year. However, you need to understand that suspending your retirement benefit will ALSO suspend your divorced spouse benefit during that time. You would receive NO Social Security income from your suspension date until you restart benefits (up to age 70). Whether this makes financial sense depends on your other income sources, your health/longevity expectations, and how much your monthly benefit would increase. You'd essentially be giving up approximately 3 years of payments now to get higher payments later. You can request suspension by contacting Social Security about 1-2 months before your FRA. I'd recommend doing calculations to see if the long-term gain justifies the short-term sacrifice.

To answer your question about how much your benefit would increase from suspending at FRA until 70: The increase would be approximately 24% (8% per year for 3 years). So if your current benefit is $2,470, your age 70 benefit would be approximately $3,062 per month. That's about $592 more per month, or $7,104 more per year. However, you'd sacrifice about $88,920 in benefits during those three years of suspension (36 months × $2,470). So it would take about 12.5 years of higher benefits (starting at age 70) to break even. If you expect to live past 82-83, it might be worth considering.

I struggled with calling Social Security for WEEKS trying to sort out a similar issue with my divorced spouse benefits. Constantly got busy signals or disconnected after waiting for hours. Finally found a service called Claimyr that got me through to an agent in under 30 minutes. Literally saved me days of frustration. You can see how it works in their video demo: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU They connect you directly to the next available SSA agent. Worth checking out at claimyr.com if you're planning to call about suspending benefits at your FRA. Having issues like this resolved with an actual agent rather than guessing online was invaluable for me.

NONE of this makes any sense to me. WHY is the SS system so ridiculously complicated??? It's like they DELIBERATELY make it confusing so people don't get the maximum they deserve. I've paid into this system for 45 YEARS and still don't understand half of it. The rules change constantly and the SS people give different answers depending who you talk to. It's INFURIATING!! OP - don't feel bad about your decision. There's no way regular people can navigate this maze without making mistakes. Even the "experts" often give contradictory advice!

One thing I want to clarify about divorced spouse benefits - you mentioned possibly being able to claim them at 60, but that's not accurate. Divorced spouse benefits based on an ex's retirement record (not disability) can only be claimed as early as age 62, and they're reduced if taken before your FRA. The benefit you can potentially claim at 60 is a surviving divorced spouse benefit, which only applies if your ex-spouse has passed away. Based on your post, it sounds like your ex is still living. Just wanted to clarify this point since there seems to be some confusion about the different types of benefits and their eligibility ages.

i think ur overthinking this... ur getting a decent benefit already and the stress of trying to figure out all this complicated stuff isn't worth it. just enjoy ur retirement and the money ur already getting! life's 2 short 2 spend it fighting with SS bureaucracy