Chuckanut
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Here's one man's view of File and Suspend versus File and Restrict. I don't recall reading about File and Restrict before, but maybe I missed it.
More File and Suspend Clarifications on Creators.com
More File and Suspend Clarifications on Creators.com
But many people who are approaching their retirement years don't want to employ either of those "file and suspend" strategies. Instead, they want to claim benefits from a spouse at age 66, and then later, at age 70, switch to their own retirement benefits to get the 32 percent bonus. These folks want to employ the "file and restrict" policy. To explain this strategy, I must first give a little background.
The law says that an application for one kind of reduced Social Security benefit is automatically an application for every other Social Security benefit you might be due. That is why you generally can NOT file for reduced spousal benefits (at age 62, for example) and later switch to full benefits on your own record.
But the law also says that once you reach age 66, that "unrestricted application" rule goes out the window. What that means is that at age 66 you can file for Social Security and "restrict" your application to spousal benefits only. Then at 70, you can file for your own retirement benefits and get the 32 percent bonus.
Once again, please understand this is NOT a file and suspend scenario. You are not filing and suspending anything. You are filing for Social Security benefits, and then restricting the scope of that application to spousal benefits only.