Ask the Expert: How working may help you boost Social Security benefits
I’m 78 years old, collecting Social Security but still working full time. Over the past four years, my employer and I, together, have paid approximately $16,000 in Social Security taxes. Can I get my monthly Social Security benefit increased to reflect this additional money? If the answer is yes, then how do I go about having my monthly payment adjusted?
The taxes you’re paying now may eventually boost your monthly benefit check, but there’s nothing you can do to make that happen. Any adjustment will be made automatically by the Social Security Administration.
Here’s why:
Your Social Security benefit is determined by a formula that crunches 35 years of your earnings history. The formula counts years in which you had no earnings as zeroes. If you had only 10 years of earned income, for example, the calculation would include 25 years of zero dollars. If you had more than 35 years of earned income, the formula counts the 35 years of your highest earnings.
As long as you work, the Social Security Administration recalculates your benefit every year. That recalculation can boost your benefit if your most recent annual earnings replace earlier years of lower earnings, or years of zero earnings, in your 35 year history. If not, your benefit is unchanged except for annual cost of living adjustments, or COLA.
COLA is based on the change in the Consumer Price Index from one year to the next. In 2024, Social Security benefit checks will rise 3.2%; that’s a much smaller boost than last year’s 8.7% increase because the rate of inflation has fallen. (And if the Consumer Price Index is negative? Not to worry. Benefit levels are never reduced.)
The bottom line
Working while collecting Social Security may boost your benefit, depending on your earnings history.
