SSA delaying processing - how much to withdraw from IRA?

[gayl]

I walked into SSA 2/19/17 exactly three months before my 66th birthday. I've been sort of out of work since age 50, but doing little side jobs and hobby jobs to avoid withdrawing from my IRA. They told me the office was too busy and to return on April 7th. I did with all the verifications that I knew that they would need. Having been a Ombudsman for a local County government I knew exactly what Social Security looks for. The lady thanked me for bringing everything in so that she would not need to recontact me and gave me a form stating I would receive my official letter in 30 days. I did not get it by May 7th so I started calling. As a matter of fact I've called 4 times! the first time they said 'yes everything is in the middle of being processed, don't worry about it, you're going to get it in June.' And that she would send me a letter in 14 days verifying the above. When I didn't get the letter in three weeks I called again. The second person stated that it is customary for it to take 60 days and do not call back until it is the 60th day. Well it's been over 60 days now. The two calls this morning resulted in one being cut off and last to find out that it's still sitting on the initial workers desk and absolutely nothing has happened to the application. In that I'm soon down to 20k left in my checking account I'm beginning to think maybe I should start withdrawing from my IRA. That's where we get to the next question. I have $665k in investments, how much can I safely withdraw per month?

 

[Fedup]

Interesting, it took my husband exactly one month for SS. Regarding withdrawal, can you get checks and withdraw as munch as you need per month, that's what my sister did when she was unemployed last year.

 

[MichaelB]

Before you start withdrawing from the IRA, I'd call the constituency services of your Senator or District Representative. Document your situation, tell them you're running out of money, and ask them to expedite the case before you consume all your savings

The IRA withdrawal is a taxable event, so you should put it off as long as possible.

 

[lemming]

What special circumstances kept you from applying online? Do they have your original documents and will you be able to retrieve them?
A compliant call to your congressional rep sounds good.

 

[H2ODude]

DW applied as soon as could (3 months before start?) online, easy peasy. Said would get that confirmation in 30 days. Didn't. Called, and it was like "why are you calling NOW? It's early." So we just sort of assumed all would be well. As it turned out it did. I applied two months later against hers, online. Just assumed it would work. It did. In our case this wasn't essential income, sort of gravy, and nothing to worry about if delayed, so we let it ride. Frankly, I can see no advantage in an in person visit over on line application. If you do it online you have a confirmation number to prove it, so that would be my recommendation to anyone with a routine app.

 

[Walt34]

Before you start withdrawing from the IRA, I'd call the constituency services of your Senator or District Representative. Document your situation, tell them you're running out of money, and ask them to expedite the case before you consume all your savings

+1.

Congresscritters have people in their offices whose sole function is to help constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy. They keep lists of people in various agencies who are both knowledgeable and will answer the telephone. The one time we did that a nudge from a congresswoman's office resulted in a quick and efficient phone call from a VA representative. Prior to that dealing with the VA had been a stone wall.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I walked into SSA 2/19/17 exactly three months before my 66th birthday. ... The two calls this morning resulted in one being cut off and last to find out that it's still sitting on the initial workers desk and absolutely nothing has happened to the application....

I agree with above that you should contact your representative.

Someone seriously knows (and more amazingly, told you) your application is still sitting on the initial worker's desk? That doesn't make any sense to me. I applied in person last spring and the worker had me sit at a computer and do it online there at the local office and I filed it right there, immediately--there was nothing that could be left at a person's desk.

You must have some paperwork you can supply to your congressperson. When you applied, when did SS tell you the first deposit would be made to your checking account? Perhaps all is well and your deposit will appear on time. My letter verifying benefits came pretty late.

 

[gayl]

Initially told it would be there June 1st, so I followed advice & went into Congressman's office. It's complicated by of WEP & Divorced Spousal app.

FWIW: If you go onto SSA.GOV the status shows up. I just found it hard to believe that it was stuck at 'initial application' status but apparently true. WEP complicates everything & I always pd in so I'm not a carve out (yes, submitted that verify too)

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I thought you stroll into the Soc sec office show them some id and say i want my dough. Apparently this soc sec thing, that im sure i will get cheated out of is more complicated than i thought. They dont even want to pay out in the first place. hahaha i knew it. The cheat has begun!

 

[Walt34]

I thought you stroll into the Soc sec office show them some id and say i want my dough. Apparently this soc sec thing, that im sure i will get cheated out of ,they dont even want to pay out in the first place. hahaha i knew it. The cheat has begun!

Few of the people here who applied for SS had any issues at all. For myself, I applied online and there were no problems at all, and the deposit has continued to be paid every month as promised.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Initially told it would be there June 1st, so I followed advice & went into Congressman's office. It's complicated by of WEP & Divorced Spousal app.

Depending on your date of birth, here is the deposit schedule (I currently have a spousal benefit so mine is deposited based on DH's birthday--not sure if that affects divorced spousal benefits):

If your birthday falls on the first through tenth, then your Social Security benefits will be paid on the second Wednesday of each month.
If your birthday falls on the 11th through 20th, your Social Security benefits will be paid on the third Wednesday of each month.
If your birthday falls on the 21st through 31st, your Social Security benefits will be paid on the fourth Wednesday of each month.

So the earliest you could see the deposit, if the application did go through and your birthday is in May, for June 2017 would be the 14th and the latest would be the 28th. I'm sure you already know all this :. I'm hoping it will be there for you!

 

[Car-Guy]

What special circumstances kept you from applying online? Do they have your original documents and will you be able to retrieve them?
A compliant call to your congressional rep sounds good.

My experience with SS is as follows.

Applying on-line with no human intervention works extremely well. Easy to use and everything seems to be automated and on time. YMMV

Anytime I've had to deal with SS in person (twice so far) it is a slow and painful process and no one seems to be able to give you an update along the way. The good news (sort of) is in a few months, things seem to get done, somehow. (At least they did for me)

I'm almost convinced that they have one guy (or gal) in a back room somewhere that knows what he/she is doing and is super busy. You just need to wait for him/her to get to your case. Not sure what everyone else is doing there.

Few of the people here who applied for SS had any issues at all. For myself, I applied online and there were no problems at all, and the deposit has continued to be paid every month as promised.

+1 Applied on-line. Quick and easy and payments arrived on time without talking to anyone. The problems only seem to come into play if for some reason you need to get a human involved at a later date.

 

[Fedup]

Before the deposit, they would send you a letter to tell you how much you receive monthly first.

 

[marko]

I called the local SS office to see about SSDI for my brother (age 60) who was suddenly seriously disabled.

They told me "well (sigh)....it could take 3 or 4 years to get, so maybe he should just wait and take it at 62 or 65 automatically..."

As it turned out, his LT insurance provided a lawyer who was able to magically shorten that "3 or 4 years" to 2 months. The lawyer told me "yeah, they say that stuff so that they don't have to deal with it"

My personal application was done online with zero problem; took about 20 minutes. Check in the mail every month!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Before the deposit, they would send you a letter to tell you how much you receive monthly first.

I just checked my paperwork. My benefits started August 1, 2016, to begin being paid the third week of September. My letter telling me all about this and the amount is dated August 3, 2016 (and I know I didn't actually receive the letter that day). So there is hope OP's benefits will start on time regardless of the "initial application" status of her filing.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Slightly off topic, but im sure once they straighten out this issue, you will get your money. I think ill be the first victim of the reduction. When i first retired, i called the banks automated system to see if my pension check got deposited. I started calling about the 29th of every month, even tho its comes on the first. after a few months it wore off and i assume its going in like clockwork. You will be fine

 

[RobbieB]

I had to go in person as it was survivor benes, but it all went smooth as glass. I did call them before when my wife died and collected the $250 so they probably expected me shortly after I turned 60.

 

[SheitlQueen]

Have you signed up for an online account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount ?

That's where my letter showed up, I don't believe I ever got one in the mail.

 

[Koolau]

Both of our applications went smooth as silk. Only wrinkle was that SS tried to talk me into taking 6 months of "back" benefits prior to 70th BD. I've heard this is now common practice. I wouldn't say they tried to hide the fact that it would lower future payments (duh!) but they didn't emphasize that at all. YMMV

 

[braumeister]

Between my mother, my wife, and myself, I've had three visits to local offices, two phone calls to the 800 number, and two online actions.

Every one of those interactions was smooth, professional and easy. I've been very impressed with all the SS employees I've dealt with.

Of course it goes without saying that Blue Collar Guy will not only be cheated out of what he should expect, but they will also find a way to drain his bank accounts and put him out on the street in a cardboard box.

But that's just him; the rest of us will be fine.

 

[gayl]

Have you signed up for an online account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount ?

That's where my letter showed up, I don't believe I ever got one in the mail.

I love that site. I also appreciate the extra layer of security being added June 10th. That's where it states 'initial' for application instead of 'processing'

So back to original question (which was sidelined by my venting): how much can I safely withdraw while it may be going thru WEP exception phase? I had preferred to not touch until 70 just in case I was self-insuring skilled nursing later on


Update: only took a day for them to respond to me once they got a call from the congressman's office. And yes it has to do with being a government retiree but not under WEP. So NOW it's processing so I think (?) I'm looking at only 1 month delay?

 

[SecondCor521]

To answer your original question, an easy answer would be 4% of that $665K per year, which works out to $2216 per month if I did my math correctly.[1]

If you wanted to try to be clever about it, you could try to do a shell game by waiting as long as possible, doing an IRA "rollover" of, say, $5000, live on that as long as possible, then use the SS money to back fill the IRA rollover money within 60 days.

Or live on credit cards for a few months. People apparently do this. Depends on how close you're cutting things, how much creative hassle you want to put up with.

One other thing - I'm not 100% sure of this and it may have been mentioned already, but - If your 66th birthday was on 5/19, then SS considers you to have attained the age of 66 on 5/18. But I think you have to be 66 for a full calendar month before you start receiving benefits, which for you would be all of June. Then you would receive your June benefits in July; they pay one month in arrears. Assuming you're collecting on your own benefit and looking at Bestwifeever's post, that would mean the third Wednesday in July, or July 19.

One more other thing, if you requested benefits to start on your 66th birthday and they don't start your payments on time, they will make up the back payments with a lump sum. I think you get that lump sum at the beginning. So in other words, if you don't get a month's worth of benefits on July 19, you might get two months' worth of benefits in August or three months of benefits in September.

[1] Assuming you wanted to pretend like you're living off the $665K for the rest of your life. If you are planning on living on SS and keeping your investments as a lump sum for LTC insurance or other large items like you said, you could just take whatever lump sum you feel comfortable with and consider it a one time withdrawal. That's a more subjective decision and it's really up to you as to what you can sleep with at night and the tradeoff between meeting your cash flow needs over the next few months vs. LTC costs later.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I love that site. I also appreciate the extra layer of security being added June 10th. That's where it states 'initial' for application instead of 'processing'

So back to original question (which was sidelined by my venting): how much can I safely withdraw while it may be going thru WEP exception phase? I had preferred to not touch until 70 just in case I was self-insuring skilled nursing later on


Update: only took a day for them to respond to me once they got a call from the congressman's office. And yes it has to do with being a government retiree but not under WEP. So NOW it's processing so I think (?) I'm looking at only 1 month delay?

In your OP you said you have $20k in checking, so in my world of very small finance you shouldn't need to touch the $665k in your nest egg for several months, by which time you should be getting your SS.

 

[gayl]

Yes, down to 20k in checking but I am uneasy about going below that. Guess I just need to relax

Discovered several things here that SSA neglect to state: (I had worked with SSDI clients). Paid

1. throughout month (mine would be 3rd week)
2. after FULL calendar month of eligibility so assume July(?)

Thanks Secondcor521 and Bestwifeever

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

What info do you need to provide SS when applying online?