Guide to Social Security
Retirement Benefits
Understanding your main benefit under this program.
This part of our web site explains key facts about the
retirement benefit provided by the social security program. We
do this to provide a better general understanding of this
benefit, and to help you make informed decisions about your
benefit, such as when to stop working and when to begin taking
benefits. These choices are important because they can affect
the amount of retirement benefits you receive for the rest of
your life.
This is not by any means intended to be a complete guide to
social security. The overall program is huge, and hugely
complicated. It provides other benefits (disability and survivor
benefits), and there are many rules that apply to special
situations. The Social Security Handbook, offered by the
Social Security Administration as a "readable, easy to
understand resource" about the program, is over 700 pages long.
For now, our limited goal here is to answer a few of the key questions
you may have about the core benefit provided by the
social security program, making it easier for you to understand
and work with this information. We plan to expand this section
before long to add other topics, including coverage of the
ongoing social security reform debate. Meanwhile, if you need
information on other aspects of the program, you'll find much more information at Social
Security Online, the official website of the Social Security
Administration. But stay right here if you want clear, helpful
guidance on the topics below.
Overview of Social Security Retirement
Benefits
A brief outline of how the social security retirement benefit
works, and the issues discussed in this guide.
Covered Wages and Social
Security Tax
This page briefly explains how the social security tax applies
and includes a table of covered wages.
Full Retirement Age
A chart on this page shows when you reach full retirement age
(also called normal retirement age) for purposes of the social
security system.
Understanding the Social
Security Benefit Calculation
You aren't likely to go through all the number crunching needed
to do the actual calculation, but it can be useful to get a
better understanding of how the calculation works.
Social Security Change When You
Work an Additional Year
If you're considering whether or not to continue working (or
return to work), one factor might be the effect this would have
on your social security retirement benefit.
Choosing When to Start Receiving Social Security Retirement
Benefits
You can start your benefits any time between age 62 and age 70,
receiving a larger benefit if you delay.
Earnings Test for Early
Retirees
If you decide to start receiving retirement benefits before full
retirement age, your benefit can be reduced on account of
earnings you have during that period.
Social Security Reduction for Early Start
Your retirement benefit is permanently reduced if you decide to
start receiving it before reaching full retirement age.
Social Security Increase for
Late Start
You can receive an increased benefit if you delay the start of
payments past your full retirement age.
Understanding Life
Expectancy
Your life expectancy changes as you grow older, so you may have
more time left than you think.
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