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Right here is the bottom-line message of this column: If there may be any doubt or query in your thoughts about your eligibility for any Social Safety profit, insist on submitting a declare for that profit. You’ve gotten each proper to take action. Now, let me clarify this in additional element.
I hear from readers on a regular basis who inform me they talked to a Social Safety Administration consultant about their potential eligibility for a given profit and had been both bluntly instructed they weren’t eligible or had been in any other case discouraged from submitting a declare. So, the individual making the inquiries is distributed away empty-handed, however often-times nonetheless has doubts about his or her doable entitlement to advantages.
In case you are ever in that scenario, let me repeat: Insist on submitting a declare. It’s your authorized proper, and by doing so, you accomplish two issues. No. 1: You’re going to get a authorized resolution about your eligibility for advantages, not only one Social Safety clerk’s opinion. No. 2: You’ll have attraction rights. In different phrases, in case your declare is denied and you continue to should not happy, you possibly can ask that your declare be reviewed. You even might take all of it the best way to the Supreme Court docket!
That final remark is somewhat far-fetched (though possible). Nonetheless, the essential level I’m making could be very legitimate. If a SSA rep simply says no and also you stroll away solely to later study you had been due advantages, you usually received’t have the ability to do something about it however gripe – after which file a declare with no retroactivity. However when you truly file a declare the primary time and it’s denied, and also you later are capable of show your eligibility, you’re going to get full retroactive advantages to the date you filed the declare.
As I mentioned, I hear from plenty of readers who’re given the chilly shoulder by a SSA consultant. In fact, generally the casual denial is solely applicable. For instance, in case you are solely 60 years previous and attempt to file for Social Safety retirement advantages, and you’re instructed you have to be not less than 62 to be eligible for such advantages, that’s an correct response and there may be actually nothing you are able to do.
However many occasions, the scenario is extra of a grey space, and if the SSA rep simply turns you away and doesn’t give you the prospect to file for advantages, she or he isn’t doing a very good job.
In a minute, I’ll give some examples I’ve heard from readers. However first, I wish to make this level. After I began working for the SSA again within the early Seventies, it was drilled into us virtually from day one in every of our coaching class that individuals had each proper to file for any profit they thought they could be due and that it was our job to assist them file such claims. Actually, the staffing of any Social Safety discipline workplace was decided, partly, by the variety of claims taken. So, there was that further incentive to assist folks file claims for advantages: Extra claims meant extra workers. It was so simple as that. However based mostly on the variety of complaints I get from readers who inform me that they’re discouraged from submitting for advantages, I’m guessing that staffing process doesn’t exist anymore on the SSA.
Listed here are some latest emails from readers with examples of what I’m speaking about.
Q: Though my husband and I lived collectively for 20 years, we didn’t truly get married till two years in the past. Sadly, he died final month. I’m 68 years previous and get a small Social Safety profit by myself report. After I went all the way down to the Social Safety workplace to file for widow’s advantages, the clerk instructed me we needed to be married not less than 10 years, so she mentioned I wasn’t due something. She helped me file for the $255 demise profit, and that’s all I obtained. Some pals instructed me I needs to be getting widow’s advantages. What ought to I do?
A: You need to march proper again into that Social Safety workplace and demand on submitting a declare for widow’s advantages. The ten-year duration-of-marriage rule applies solely to divorced spouses. You had been married to your husband on the time he died, in order that rule doesn’t apply to you. The SSA rep you talked to ought to have identified that. Should you get the identical individual once more, ask to talk to a supervisor. However no matter you do, don’t depart the workplace till you file a declare for widow’s advantages.
Q: Not too way back, you wrote a column explaining the foundations for getting advantages as a divorced spouse. Right here is my story. I’m 65 and get a really small Social Safety retirement profit as a result of I didn’t work a lot outdoors the house. My husband, alternatively, had an excellent job and made an honest residing. We had been married for about 30 years. We divorced three years in the past. Neither of us has remarried. He’s additionally 65 years previous and doesn’t plan to file for Social Safety advantages till he’s 70.
Your column mentioned that I ought to have the ability to get advantages on his report although he hasn’t filed but. So, I known as Social Safety’s 800 quantity and defined my scenario. The telephone rep instructed me that I can’t get any advantages from my ex till he recordsdata for Social Safety himself. I learn her the a part of your column that mentioned I’m due advantages now, and he or she mentioned, “Who’re you going to imagine: some clueless man who writes a newspaper column, or me, an official authorities consultant?” Then she hung up! What do you counsel I do?
A: Properly, I don’t suppose it might assist to name her again and inform her that the “clueless man” labored for the Social Safety Administration for 32 years and has written a nationally syndicated column about Social Safety for about 25 years. I don’t suppose it might impress her.
However right here’s what ought to impress her. Both go to your native Social Safety workplace or name the toll-free quantity (800-772-1213) and demand on submitting a declare. The regulation clearly says a divorced girl can file for advantages on an ex-husband’s report even when he isn’t but amassing advantages. He have to be sufficiently old to be eligible for Social Safety – primarily which means he must be 62 or older. However that’s it. Then, as soon as your advantages begin and also you get an official “award letter,” it might be nice when you might by some means observe down that telephone rep who wouldn’t allow you to file a declare, learn her the award letter and inform her that regardless of her failings as a public servant, the “clueless man” helped you get your advantages began.
Anyway, I hope all my readers obtained the message of this column: When unsure, demand to file a declare for advantages to guard your rights and get a authorized resolution.
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