Applying for Social Security in the Time of Covid-19
Until mid-March of this year there were three ways of applying for Social Security benefits, or for enrolling in Medicare:
- In person at your local SSA office:
- By telephone, using either the national toll-free number (1-800-772-1213) or calling your local office (https://secure.ssa.gov/ICON/main.jsp); or
- Online through the ssa.gov website
On March 16, 2020, SSA announced that as of the following day local offices would be “closed to the public for in-person service.” https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/releases/2020/#3-2020-2 As a result, since March 17 anyone wishing to apply for benefits has been limited to telephone or online filing.
FILING ONLINE FOR RETIREMENT (INCLUDING SPOUSAL) OR DISABILITY BENEFITS[1]
You must have established a “my Social Security” account before you are permitted to file online. The advantages of filing online are: (1) you can do it when it’s convenient for you; (2) you do not have to travel to the local office; (3) you don’t need an appointment; and (4) you will not have to wait for a claims rep to answer the phone. On the other hand, there is no claims representative to speak with if you get stuck in the middle of the application.
I filed online for my own benefits several years ago. The process went smoothly and took less than 40 minutes: far less time than most folks spend getting to their local office and finding a parking space, or waiting on the telephone to reach a claims representative.
On the other hand, my wife filed her application (pre-COVID) online, with me at her side. Although we did everything correctly, a poorly trained representative in our local office reviewed the online submission and made a mess of the process: it took several phone calls and three subsequent trips to the local office to set things straight.
If you are reasonably confident in your ability to apply online, I suggest you give it a shot. If you run into difficulty during the process, take a break and look for help, rather than submitting an application that may be problematic. I increasingly refer clients to a professional service where, for a very modest fee, an experienced professional will (by phone) walk you through the online application line by line as you make the entries on your computer. Virtually everyone who has used this service has indicated they were glad they did.
RESTRICTED APPLICATION FOR SPOUSAL BENEFITS ONLY: if you were born before January 2, 1954 and are eligible to file a restricted application, be sure to make it absolutely clear that you are not applying for your own benefits, but rather for spousal benefits only.
- Be sure to check “Yes” next to the following question: “If you are eligible for both retirement benefits and spouse’s benefits, do you want to delay the start of retirement benefits?”
- You might also say something in the Remarks section like: “I am restricting the scope of my application to spousal benefits only. I want to delay receipt of my own retirement benefits to earn Delayed Retirement Credits.” or “I wish to exclude my own retirement benefits from the scope of this application.”
Before you actually hit the submit button, be sure to print out a copy of the application. This enables you to make sure the application accurately reflects what you intended to do. It will also serve as evidence of what you did in case there is a dispute down the road.
APPLYING FOR BENEFITS BY PHONE
You may call the national toll-free number (800-772-1213), or you may call your local office after first locating a phone number at https://secure.ssa.gov/ICON/main.jsp. Whichever number you call, expect a lengthy wait. Eventually you will be rewarded when a live person answers the phone. This is generally not a cause for celebration, as it is likely that all you will be able to do at the moment is to make an appointment to speak with a claims representative at a later date.
Even if you cannot get an appointment for the month in which you planned to begin benefits, calling for the appointment should entitle you to a “protective filing.” This means, for example, that if you call SSA in April to claim benefits that month and they can’t give you an appointment until June or July, once you do complete the application SSA will backdate it to be effective as of the month in which you called for the appointment (i.e., April). Be sure to ask for the protective filing when you call for the appointment, and try to get a written confirmation if possible, to avoid having to fight for it several months later.
When the actual filing appointment begins, a claims representative will ask questions, you will answer them, and the rep will record your answers on the application. Some claims representatives are excellent, but others may be inexperienced and/or inadequately trained – and you might not be able to tell the difference. Many applicants have received information and/or recommendations from claims representatives that was either not in the applicants’ best interest, was flat-out wrong, or both.
When you have completed the application over the phone, be sure to ask for a written copy of the document if the representative does not offer it.
PREPARING TO FILE AN APPLICATION
The most important preparation you can undertake is to decide on your claiming strategy before beginning the application process. It may be a “no-brainer” as far as you are concerned, but you should fully understand the range of claiming strategies available to you before making your decisions, ideally with input from a Social Security expert and your financial planner.
Some representatives may try to talk you out of what you’ve already decided upon by insisting that you should do something that will produce a higher immediate monthly payment. This can happen during a phone application session, or even several days after you have submitted an online filing. I recommend that you decide on your strategy in advance, go in well prepared, and then hold your ground if the rep suggests something different. At least do yourself the favor of getting a second opinion from a Social Security expert before allowing yourself to be persuaded to change course by a stranger who knows little about your situation.
SSA suggests that you gather certain information and have it on hand when you file no matter which method you use. https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-1.html One of the more important items is “Your bank or other financial institution’s Routing Transit Number and the account number.” Benefits are paid by direct deposit into an account you designate, so it’s critical to get this piece right the first time.
I found one “trick” question when I applied for benefits: “Have you used any other names?” My first reaction was “of course not.” Then I recalled that when I got my first Social Security card at age 14 I used my full middle name. Somewhere along the way I dropped the middle name and began using just my middle initial, which appears on my current Social Security card.
Finally, remember that just before you sign you will have to attest, under penalty of perjury, that everything in the application is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, and declare your understanding that “anyone who knowingly gives a false statement about a material fact in this information … commits a crime and may be subject to a fine or imprisonment.”
Keep in mind that if you do make a mistake SSA will make you pay for it, and if SSA makes a mistake, SSA will still make you pay for it. Sometimes the mistake is discovered several years after you have begun receiving benefits. More often than not, SSA discovers that they have overpaid you and they want their money back NOW. If you cannot pay them in a lump sum, they have the power to collect their pound of flesh out of your benefit payments until the over-payment is recovered.
At some point the pandemic will end and in-person filing will be added back to the menu of claiming options. However, online filing will continue to provide the most convenient and reliable method of applying for the benefits you have paid for over your decades-long working career.
Peter M. Weinbaum
The Social Security Maven®
[1] As of this writing (September 22, 2020), SSA does not accept online applications for survivor benefits.
For assistance in identifying your claiming options and advice on filing, fill out the online questionnaire and submit it after attaching the requested earnings information. Clicking on the services page will lead you to a description of the various ways I work and the fee structure.