Will my disabled adult child's Social Security benefits increase when child-in-care benefits decrease due to earnings?

This is a great question about Family Maximum Benefit calculations! You're partially right, but there are some nuances to understand. When your wife's CIC benefit is reduced due to earnings, your DAC's benefit CAN increase, but only up to the point where the total family benefits reach the FMB limit of 175%. The system will automatically recalculate and redistribute the available benefits. Here's how it would work in your scenario: If your wife's benefit drops to 15% of your PIA due to earnings, your DAC's benefit could potentially increase from 37.5% up to 50%, as long as the total (your wife's 15% + your DAC's benefit + your benefit) doesn't exceed the FMB. However, there's a catch - the DAC benefit can never exceed 50% of your PIA, even if there's "room" under the FMB. So in your case, your DAC's benefit would increase, but only up to the maximum 50% of your PIA.

opensocialsecurity is usually right but sometimes the calculators don't handle these complex family benefit situations perfect. i had kind of similar issue with my disabled son and ex-wife getting benefits. what happened was when my ex's benefits went down because of her job, my son's went up automatically. SSA just recalulated it on their own.

The SSA automatically adjusts benefits when someone in the family has their benefits reduced due to earnings. But remember that it takes time for their systems to catch up! My daughter's benefits didn't increase until 3 months after my husband's benefits decreased from working. Also, the FMB is adjusted annually with cost-of-living increases, which can change the calculations slightly each year.

I think you're getting confused between two different concepts. The 175% FMB limit and the 50% benefit rate are separate things. Your DAC gets 50% of your PIA, and your wife gets 50% of your PIA for CIC benefits. That's 100% + 50% + 50% = 200%, which exceeds the 175% FMB. So everyone except you gets proportionally reduced. When your wife's benefit gets reduced due to earnings, that doesn't affect the FMB calculation directly. The 175% limit is still in place, but now there's more room under that limit for your DAC. So yes, your DAC's benefit would increase as your wife's decreases, potentially back to the full 50% if your wife's benefit is reduced enough. I had to deal with this exact situation. Once my spouse's CIC benefit reduced to about 20% due to earnings, my DAC's benefit was automatically increased to the full 50%.

Just to add a bit more info - the Family Maximum Benefit is calculated based on the worker's Primary Insurance Amount using a formula that gives a result around 150-180% of the PIA. The EXACT percentage varies based on your specific earnings record, so it might not be exactly 175% in your case. If you want to see the exact FMB for your situation, you can check your Social Security statement or call SSA directly. I've been trying to reach them about a similar issue for WEEKS and keep getting disconnected. Frustrating!

U NEED TO BE SUPER CAREFUL with these calculations!!! SSA made a HUGE error with my family's benefits and it took 9 MONTHS to fix!!!! They didn't automatically adjust my son's benefits when my spouse's went down due to work. We had to fight and fight and finally got a meeting with a technical expert who fixed it. DON'T ASSUME they'll do it right automatically!!!! Check your benefit amounts EVERY MONTH and if they don't increase when they should, CALL IMMEDIATELY!!!

To answer your follow-up question - I think it's definitely worth proactively calling SSA when your wife starts working to make sure they're aware of the situation. But honestly, what helped us most was keeping good records of all her earnings reports and confirmation numbers. That way, when the benefits didn't adjust properly, we had documentation showing we'd reported everything correctly.

One more thing I just thought of - the opensocialsecurity.com calculator is primarily designed for retirement benefit optimization, not necessarily for complex family benefit scenarios with disability benefits and earnings tests. That might be why it's not showing what you expect. For your specific situation with a DAC, I'd recommend using the SSA's own calculators or speaking directly with them for the most accurate information.

This is such a helpful discussion! As someone who's been navigating similar family benefit complexities, I wanted to add that timing can be crucial here. When your wife starts working and her CIC benefits begin to reduce, make sure she reports her earnings promptly to SSA. I've seen cases where delayed reporting led to overpayments that had to be paid back later, which created a whole mess with the family benefit calculations. The sooner SSA knows about the earnings changes, the sooner they can properly redistribute the benefits under the FMB. Also, @Jamal Wilson, since you mentioned your PIA will be around $2,700, your FMB will likely be somewhere between $4,725-$4,860 (175-180% range), so there should be plenty of room for your DAC's benefit to increase as your wife's decreases. Just keep those records everyone mentioned - you'll thank yourself later if any issues arise!

This thread has been incredibly informative! I'm in a somewhat similar situation with my disabled adult son, and I've been struggling to understand these family benefit calculations for months. One thing I wanted to add that might be helpful - when I spoke with an SSA representative last month, they mentioned that the system automatically recalculates family benefits not just monthly, but sometimes even more frequently if there are significant changes in reported earnings. They also told me that if you're close to retirement and planning this out in advance (which is smart!), you can actually request a benefit estimate that shows different scenarios with varying earnings levels for family members. @Jamal Wilson, given your proactive approach to planning this out, you might want to request these scenario-based estimates from SSA before you file. That way you'll have a clearer picture of exactly how the benefits will adjust as your wife's earnings change, rather than trying to estimate based on general rules. Also, has anyone here dealt with the situation where the DAC becomes entitled to benefits on their own work record? I'm wondering how that might affect these family benefit calculations, since my son has been doing some part-time work recently.

This is such a comprehensive discussion! As someone who recently went through a similar situation with my disabled daughter, I want to emphasize something that hasn't been mentioned yet - make sure to understand the timing of when benefits actually change. When my spouse started working and her CIC benefits began reducing due to earnings, there was about a 2-3 month lag before my daughter's DAC benefits increased to compensate. During that period, our total family benefits were actually lower than they should have been under the FMB rules. SSA eventually corrected this with retroactive payments, but it created some budgeting challenges in the interim. So @Jamal Wilson, when your wife starts working, be prepared for potential temporary reductions in total family benefits while the system catches up with the recalculations. Also, I'd strongly recommend setting up a my Social Security account online if you haven't already. It makes tracking these monthly benefit adjustments much easier, and you can spot discrepancies quickly rather than waiting for paper statements. The key takeaway from everyone's experiences here seems to be: the system does work as intended (benefits redistribute under the FMB as earnings change), but it's not always immediate or error-free, so active monitoring and good record-keeping are essential.