SS at 62 with minors

[timmar]

My SS full retirement age is 67. My PIA is 3,788. At age 62 I will have 2 children under 18 (1 permanently disabled but I don't think that matters for this question). My max family benefit calculates out to 6,463. If I take benefits at 62 my monthly should be 2640. My wife is 6 years younger than me so won't affect any benefits for a while.

My question concerns my 2 children. If I am interpreting it correctly each child is eligible of 1/2 of my PIA which would be 1,894 each. Is this available at 62 if I start taking benefits then? If so my 2,640 plus 2x 1,894 is 6,428 or within a few dollars of our max family benefit. If I delay benefits the family max governs until kid 1 is over 18. But then shortly after wife can claim on my earnings.

I have modeled the income and I don't get a break even from delaying SS any at all until 30+ years out. I see no reason to delay benefits past 62 in our case. Does the greater wisdom and experience of this community agree? My gut tells me I must be missing something or maybe we are one of those edge cases where claiming as soon as possible is the best answer.

 

[zl55lz]

My SS full retirement age is 67. My PIA is 3,788. At age 62 I will have 2 children under 18 (1 permanently disabled but I don't think that matters for this question). My max family benefit calculates out to 6,463. If I take benefits at 62 my monthly should be 2640. My wife is 6 years younger than me so won't affect any benefits for a while.

My question concerns my 2 children. If I am interpreting it correctly each child is eligible of 1/2 of my PIA which would be 1,894 each. Is this available at 62 if I start taking benefits then? If so my 2,640 plus 2x 1,894 is 6,428 or within a few dollars of our max family benefit. If I delay benefits the family max governs until kid 1 is over 18. But then shortly after wife can claim on my earnings.

I have modeled the income and I don't get a break even from delaying SS any at all until 30+ years out. I see no reason to delay benefits past 62 in our case. Does the greater wisdom and experience of this community agree? My gut tells me I must be missing something or maybe we are one of those edge cases where claiming as soon as possible is the best answer.

You didn't mention how old your children will be when you reach age 62. If you are calculating how much total benefits you would receive for the family over time, how long they will be on benefits will matter. How old they will be when they graduate from high school factors in if the rules are still the same.

Also a factor could be if one of your children will be filing for DAC (Disabled Adult Child) benefits on your record when they turn 18.

You can speak with a knowledgeable Title 2 Claims Representative at your Social Security Office. My preference would be to speak with a long time Claims Rep, not a Service Representative.

 

[Slater]

Im so confused about your question & statement.
If youre getting disability income now "ssdi", that means youre getting your social security now.
ssdi is early ss.
You dont get "disability income" & then when you turn 62 you get your ss income on top of your ssdi....
The kids supplemental goes away when they turn 18, regardless of your age or when you collect.

 

[timmar]

Children will be 14 and 12 when I turn 62. (They are 11 and 9 now. The 9 year old is permanently disabled but I don't believe that is relevant until they turn 18). I modeled monthly flow (me + 2 kids at 62, 1 dropping off when they turn 18, second dropping off at 18 but wife coming on the same month.) Comparing every case from taking benefits at 62 yrs 0 months up to 70 the earliest date worked out best through 40 years.

Thank you for the recommendation to speak with a Claims Rep not a Service Rep. I did not know there was anyone other than whoever was next in the queue. I was planning on calling my local office but did not know what to request.

 

[Slater]

got it, I misread..
though the 1 was an I...
thought you were the disabled one.

 

[timmar]

Im so confused about your question & statement.
If youre getting disability income now "ssdi", that means youre getting your social security now.
ssdi is early ss.
You dont get "disability income" & then when you turn 62 you get your ss income on top of your ssdi....
The kids supplemental goes away when they turn 18, regardless of your age or when you collect.

Sorry about the confusion.

I am not disabled, my 9 year old is (and will be 12 when I turn 62). I should have left their disability out of the narrative.

My basic question is: Does each child get 1/2 of my PIA when I start collecting benefits at 62?

 

[oldtimer]

Have you entered your PIA info into opensocialsecurity.com and click the checkbox at the top and then select the children <19 or disable checkbox, etc.? I trust Mike Piper's tool.

 

[jim584672]

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10085.pdf

Sounds like 1/2, but there is a family limit.

 

[timmar]

Oldtimer - thanks for the note about the checkbox. I had looked at that calculator a few times but never noticed the box to get more options to show. My understanding of who in the family can claim and when is the optimum time matches that site. My benefit at 62 is very close to what I had calculated. But our Family Max that I calculaled from the SS website is VERY different from what this calculator shows. I need to dig into that some more.

 

[timmar]

Jim, Thanks. That was the pub I was basing my question from. It looks pretty clear to me and openss.com backs up my thoughts.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I think you need to find out whether dependents/children SS benefits get reduced when you claim early at age 62.

 

[wolf]

Been There. When I turned 62. Collected early SS. Had two young children.

1. Meet with SS representive to explain.
2. Your orginal post was correct. 1/2 of your SS each child collects.
3. When child turns 18 or completes high school. (one child was 19 when she completed
(high school) so collected a few extra month.
4. BE SURE and Check this out. This surprised me ! ! !
When the older child stops collecting SS. (turns 18)

The younger childs SS benefit "will increase" (will be more than 1/2 of yours)
Unless the SS rules have changed since I was 62.

5. One concern. Assuming you are the higher earner. Your spouse will collect
your SS amount when you pass. (the 62 rate) Not a higher SS rate if you waited.

6. In my case. Was a no-brainer.

7. Also, check with SS representive. If child is dis-abled. SS benefit may go past 18 yrs.
Long story. One of my kids, had severe anxiety........

 

[timmar]

Thanks wolf for the confirmation. I plan on meeting with SS early next year but it is always nice to know what the answers should be before you get them.

And our youngest child has Down Syndrome and so has a lifetime disability as far as SS is concerned.

 

[rodi]

We did this. DH was 62 and started SS and our, then, 11 and 13 year old were able to collect.

You have to keep track of how the money is spent - for us, we spent far more than they were collecting on things like health insurance, educational misc expenses (books, field trips, bus passes to get to school), percentage of groceries, their clothing, orthodontia, etc. We were never asked for this info, but in theory we could have been. Both my boys turned 18 while still seniors in high school. The school had to affirm that they were still enrolled to continue to payments. (The payments continued till the June following their 18th birthdays when they graduated.)

For us - it was also a no brainer for DH to take SS early and get the benefits for the boys. I had the higher income, so I am delaying SS till either FRA or 70... will play that by ear. Boys are now in college. Money is fungible, so we covered all the expenses in listed in our official spreadsheet, but in practice there was a close correlation of the monthly SS deposit to our monthly contributions to their 529's. (Which is not an expense you can list.) But we always showed that their 'expenses' exceeded the amount received. Kids are expensive.

In our case our family total was less than the 1/2 PIA... but it was close enough.

It was an adjustment that summer after they each graduated, but before they moved out... My boys can consume a LOT Of food. (They're both home from college ATM and I'm feeling the grocery store receipt pain.)

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I did this as well. Worked out great.

 

[Exchme]

I would trust the opensocialsecurity.com amounts and recommendations. Not knowing anything about what SS does when there are minor children, it was a surprise to me that 62 would be best. But I put in your PIA and the ages of your family, and sure enough, 62! Waiting just means missing out on benefits for the kids and several years of spousal benefits. In case you didn't notice, the program does have a spot where you can tell it which child is disabled, so it can take that into account as well.

Also, scroll to the bottom and check out the graph at the bottom, each cell corresponds to a claim month combination, if you click on it, it will show you how much the lifetime value of the benefit varies from its recommendation.