Your Golden Year For Social Security

The best formula for households on average, they found, was for the husband to claim at 66 and the wife at 62. For women who survive to an advanced age, a husband's holding off on benefits can mean the difference between poverty or not. The three researchers' paper cited an earlier study that showed widows aged 90 or older whose husbands had claimed payments at or past full retirement age had benefits in 1998 that were 19 percent above the poverty line. By contrast, women whose husbands claimed sooner had average benefits 1 percent below the poverty line.

One possible fix might be to require spousal consent for claiming benefits before full retirement age, the researchers suggest.

If you are a husband who has claimed early, there is a way to reverse that decision. You can formally withdraw your application, pay back the benefits received (but no interest) and reapply, according to Social Security's Mark Lassiter.

There is another Social Security issue facing a number of people these days: early retirement. What does early retirement do to your Social Security checks? In most cases, Lassiter said, you face a reduced amount. Social Security payments are based on the 35 highest-earning years in your career. For every year you work beyond that, you get to drop off one of the lower-earning years from early in your career when you were a bicycle messenger, or, even worse, a poorly paid reporter for a small newspaper.

Also, if you make more than the maximum amount credited for Social Security, your benefits could increase as the ceiling rises. This year, it's $97,500. Next year, the limit rises to $102,000. Maybe that's not an issue for most of us, but it would make a difference for some people.

Have you left a job and taken a lump sum instead of monthly pension payments? If so, and if you're willing to share your experience and what you did with the money in a future column, contacthamiltonm@washpost.com.