Legal Specs

Understanding the Social Security Retirement Benefits

22 Sep 2008

Brief History

In the earlier era, the American society was shaken by deep depression affecting the country's economic security. The most affected sector then was the seniors (old age) who have been struggling about their retirement after a long life of labor. The country was then struggling to develop an adequate retirement system.

In attempting to address this concern, President Franklin Roosevelt waged a campaign, ending with him choosing the social insurance approach as the cornerstone of his attempts to deal with the problem of economic security.

With these, the Social Security Act was given life. The new act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935 having several provisions for general welfare, and has created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement.

Developments later on were introduced expanding the benefit coverage of the Act that includes provisions for disability, Medicare and other benefit-associated programs.

Present Conditions

Under the present set-up, the Social Security Administration (SSA) now generally administers 5 major benefit programs, namely: Retirement, Survivors, Disability, Supplemental Security Income and Medicare. Of the whole mantle of benefits sanctioned under the SSA, the Social Security retirement benefits remain to be the cornerstone.

Social Security Retirement Benefits

Social Security Retirement benefit is a program of SSA implemented to assure the retirement payments of the workers and employees in the United States of America. It is a form of social insurance payments made by the SSA upon the attainment of old age (62 or older).

This lifetime retirement benefit is paid in the form of a monthly check (subject to adjustments per year for inflation) to individuals who meet these requirements:

• Must be fully insured under the Social Security system, which means that you must have 40 credits for covered work that were subject to social security tax or self-employment tax.

• You must be over 62 years of age by the first month

• Either have applied for the benefits or have been automatically converted from Disability Insurance Benefits at Full Retirement Age.

Retirement benefits are generally paid to the covered individuals beginning with the first full month he or she attained the age of 62 following the completion and satisfaction of the requirements for entitlement. However, if benefits begin before age 65, the payments are reduced to account for the longer period over which they will be paid.

The amount of benefits are relatively dependent or can be determined on the age the worker begins to receive his or her benefits. In addition, the amount of benefit payment is affected by the age at which the worker decides to retire. Here is the catch: If the worker retires at age 62, his/her benefit will be lower than if he or she waits until later to retire. Put it differently, the longer the worker waits, the bigger the check.

Here are the following factors that reflect the variance of benefit payment amounts:

• Full Retirement (comes a few years later than age 62)

• Retiring at this age will ensure the retiree receives full benefits. However, if the workers choose to commence receiving benefit before their full retirement age, they will receive a reduced benefit.

Early Retirement (comes before normal retirement age)

A worker retiring before attaining the full retirement age shall have benefits permanently reduced based on the number of months he/she will receive checks before he/she reaches full retirement age. The early retiree will then have to contend with the earnings test, which reduces the size of their benefit if they earn too much during the period before they reach full retirement age.

Delayed Retirement (comes after normal retirement age)

For those workers who continue to work past their full retirement age, their Social Security retirement benefits can be increased on either of the two methods:

• By a certain percentage (percentage varies depending on the worker's year of birth)

• Each additional year of work adds another year of earnings to the Social Security record. Thus, higher lifetime earnings may result in higher benefits

Ending words

The brief information provided was aimed to provide a better general understanding about Social Security Retirement benefit. For more detailed information and help in this regard, you can heed a qualified Social Security Retirement Benefit lawyer.

The lawyer will guide you through the whole process of the claim and will help you make informed decisions about your benefit making it easier for you to understand and work with your benefit pursuit.

For your concerns regarding retirement benefits and other related issues, you can seek the assistance of our skilled social security lawyers. You can visit our website and avail of our free case evaluation.