Will current SS contributions from part-time work increase my retirement benefits after claiming at 63?

your still paying in just like everyone else. the government takes our money no matter what

SSA automatically recalculates your benefit amount each year to see if your current earnings increase your monthly payment. If your part-time earnings are higher than any of the 35 years they originally used in your calculation, they'll replace the lower year with your new earnings and potentially increase your benefit. You'll get a notice in the mail if there's any change. Keep in mind your part-time job needs to have earnings that exceed (after inflation adjustment) one of your previous 35 years to make any difference. If all your previous 35 years had higher earnings, these new contributions won't affect your payment amount.

When I retired, I kept a small side job just to stay busy. Same situation—paying into SS but earning way less than before. After 3 years, my benefit increased by a whopping $12/month. Better than nothing I guess! But don't expect much if your earnings are substantially lower.

There's a common misconception about how Social Security calculates benefits. Your benefit is based on your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. If your current part-time work doesn't replace one of those years, you won't see an increase. However, your continued work might help in other ways: 1. If you had fewer than 35 years of earnings when you filed at 63, any additional work years will fill in those blanks 2. If your current earnings exceed any of your previous 35 highest years (after indexing for inflation), it will replace that year The SSA automatically reviews your record each year around October and will adjust your benefit if warranted. Any increase would be retroactive to January of that year. Unfortunately, if your part-time earnings are substantially lower than your career earnings, you may not see any benefit increase from these continued contributions.

I was in almost the exact same situation last year! Getting through to SSA to ask about this was impossible - I tried calling for 3 weeks straight and either got disconnected or was on hold for 2+ hours. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an agent in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed that my part-time job earnings weren't high enough to increase my benefit amount. She explained they do an automatic recomputation every year, but my current earnings weren't replacing any of my top 35 years. Saved me a lot of worry!

I'm so confused about this too!!! I'm 64 and still working FULL time while collecting SS and I keep wondering if I'm just THROWING MONEY AWAY every paycheck!!! Does ANYONE know if there's a MAXIMUM number of years they count??? What if you've worked for 45+ years???

just another way the govt takes our money. they should stop taxing retirement age people completey imo

One more thing to consider: Even though your continued contributions might not increase your monthly benefit, they're still supporting the overall Social Security system that you and others rely on. The system is designed so current workers support current beneficiaries, so your contributions are helping sustain benefits for everyone in the program.