early retirement -- Social Security benefits ??

[savingFR]

Hi,

I am 61 and have two children under the age of 16. I am working.
I have read about delaying the claim for Social Security benefits and if I were to begin claiming, I would receive 75% of what I would have received at full retirement age. I think the break even point will be around 17 years, but this is not my question here and I am wondering whether having 2 children claiming the benefits will change the equation...Given I have sufficient earned income, I suspect I won't be receiving any benefits.

Questions

1. Will I be able to apply and suspend so as to keep the full benefit at age 66?? ( I suspected not).

2. If not, I assume my portion of the benefits will be withheld and be distributed back to me, right? Say assuming I should have received $20,000 annually and if I do not have earned income beginning at age 64, the 2 *$20,000 will be distributed back to me right?


3. Given 2 of my children will be able to receive benefits until I reach 66, I assume my break even point will be much higher, true?

4. I have read from the ssa.gov site that the total benefits for the family can be from 150 to 180 percent of the parent's full benefit amount. As I am assuming I will be getting 100% of the reduced benefits (even withheld), therefore, does it mean that each of my children will not get the 50% benefits?

thank you.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I have no input to your question but wish to tell artwest that minor children of retirement SS are eligible for SS support.

Retirement Planner: Benefits For Your Children

[MonkeyMama]

You won't get a good answer here. SS is extraordinarily complex.

I did find this:

Answers to Questions About Social Security, IRAs - WSJ.com

So, as long as you are working, I doubt there is much benefit to you, though you have minor children. This basically says that their benefits would also be reduced if you are working and receiving earned income.

Your best option is to go to the social security office and discuss your options with them.

[savingFR]

thank you.
that's exactly what I was looking to find out.

[kv968]

Questions

1. Will I be able to apply and suspend so as to keep the full benefit at age 66?? ( I suspected not).

You have to be of full retirement age to "file and suspend".

[Gailete]

You mentioned that you children were under 16, which I initially read as they were 16. How old they actually are would make the difference here. Unless you childrn are currently getting benefits due to the death or disability of their other parent, they aren't eligible for any benefits at this point, nor will they be eligible until you would receive benefits and that would only be until they are 18. You aren't even allowed benefits until you are 62 at the earliest.

As you said your question is about your children claiming a benefit.

Per the SS website

Three months before your child's 18th birthday, we will send you a notice that benefits will end at age 18 unless your child is a full-time student at a secondary ( or elementary) school. If your child is younger than 19 and still attending a secondary or elementary school, he or she must notify us by completing a statement of attendance that has been certified by a school official. The benefits then will usually continue until he or she graduates, or until two months after reaching age 19, whichever comes first.

This means that unless your children are disabled, their benefits would end at age 18 unless they are still in HS. Unless your youngest is 12-13 they won't get benefits until you are 66.

I do not believe that your benfits for you would change at all whether you have children receiving benefits as well. They get theirs and you would get yours. Until a certain percentage is reached.

Do understand that your benefits will be decreased for the rest of your life if you take early retirement. It sounds like you are trying to figure out how to get benefits for your kids while you continue to work. I suspect this is the telling line, again from the SS website

To get benefits, a child must have:
•A parent(s) who is disabled or retired and entitled to Social Security benefits

Just because you could retire and collect a partial SS payment, doesn't entitle the children to receive benefits past a certain point.

The one thing you might want to think of is their other parent retired yet? You might want to check with SS about thae posibility of them getting benefits that way.

NOTE That you will not be eligible for Medicare until you are 65 which would be a huge impact if you do take early retirement.

[Gailete]

This depends on the policies of the company and if you are still working or not. Some companies will start automatically distributing the social security payments to you after retirement age or age 70.5.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but NO company other than the Social Security Administration distributes social security payments. Are you perhaps meaning payments from IRA's, 401K, 403K, or private pensions? The only thing that a company would distribute is their private pension or the payments put into a 401K or if a non-profit a 403K (not sure if that is the right code).

I think the OP is only talking about Social Security payments at this point although hopefully she has some of the others.