Working full-time after 70 - will my Social Security benefits still increase?

Your benefit CAN still increase after 70 even while collecting. Each year, SSA looks at your earnings record and automatically recalculates to see if your recent earnings would increase your benefit. It's called an Automatic Earnings Recomputation (AERO). If your recent work years are higher than some of the 35 years used to calculate your benefit, they'll adjust it upward. The increase would start the following year. I retired at 70 but did some consulting after and saw small increases.

yes they do increase! my dad worked till 75 and his check went up every year. they do some kind of recalculation thing automatically. but dont expect huge changes maybe just a few dollars more each time.

I'm actually dealing with something similar right now and it's SO confusing! I'm 68 and still working but planning to file at 70 too. Does anyone know - do we have to actually REQUEST these recalculations from SSA or do they just happen automatically??? I'm worried I'll miss out if I don't specifically ask for it.

What nobody is mentioning is that the AERO recalculations are ONLY helpful if your recent earnings are replacing lower-earning years in your top 35. Since your SS benefit calculation uses your highest 35 years of earnings (indexed for inflation), if your recent $95K isn't higher than your previous earnings when indexed, you might see zero increase. Also remember that only earnings up to the max taxable amount ($168,600 for 2025) count toward your benefit calculation.

The benefit amount technically becomes "fixed" at age 70 in terms of delayed retirement credits (DRCs), which stop accumulating after 70. BUT as others mentioned, your benefit can still increase through the AERO process if new earnings replace lower earnings in your 35-year calculation. I've been in your exact situation. I filed at 70 but continued working at my engineering firm. My benefit has increased about 3.8% beyond COLA adjustments over the past 4 years due to these recalculations. For reference, my early career earnings were quite low, so the new years are replacing those.

I HATE HATE HATE how confusing the SSA makes all of this!!!! Why can't they just explain things clearly for once? You shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand your benefits. I've been trying to get answers about my widower benefits for MONTHS and keep getting different answers every time I call. So frustrating!!!

One thing to keep in mind - the AERO recalculations typically happen the year AFTER you earn the higher wages. Also, the calculation is based on your earnings after they've been indexed for inflation, not just raw dollar amounts. So an indexed $50K from 1990 might be worth more than $95K today in the calculation. You can create an account at ssa.gov and see your entire earnings history, which helps you figure out which years might be replaced.

My sister worked till 72 and her check went up every year but not by much. The thing is she had to pay all that extra SS tax from her paychecks when honestly she probably didn't need to keep working, but she's a workaholic lol. So make sure ur really getting ur moneys worth if ur gonna keep paying in all those taxes!

I'd suggest checking what your current PIA (Primary Insurance Amount) is by looking at your my Social Security account online. If your current earnings would replace one of your lowest 35 years, you can roughly estimate the increase by calculating how much that would raise your AIME (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings). Every $1 increase in AIME translates to about 15 cents in monthly benefits for high earners. Also note that you'll get COLA increases regardless of whether you're working, so don't attribute all future increases to your continued work.

if your trying to get answers from social security directly, i tried calling for 3 weeks about my disability appeal and couldn't get through. my friend told me about this service called Claimyr that got me through to a real person at SSA in less than 15 minutes! totally worth it because they just keep calling for you until they get through. check out the video on how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU or their website at claimyr.com. actually worked for me when i was about to give up!

So wait wait wait... I'm confused about something... if I claim at 70 but keep working but then I like REDUCE my hours or take a lower paying job later on... can my benefits actually GO DOWN based on these new calculations?? Or do they only ever go up? Please someone clarify I'm freaking out a bit!