50+ Lifestyles

YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY

by Sharice L. Edwards
Social Security Acting District Manager, Davenport Iowa

RETIRED WITH CHILDREN?

The idea of someone being “retired with children” may seem like the seed of another television sit-com or reality show. But the fact is that it’s becoming more and more common for older people to have minor children in their care — whether by bringing new children into the world, taking over the care of grandchildren or adopting children who need nurturing parents.

So it’s important to know that if you receive Social Security benefits and have minor children who depend on you, you might be able to receive benefits for them, too. This is true whether you receive benefits as a retiree or you receive Social Security disability or survivors benefits.

To get benefits, a child must have a parent (or in some cases a grandparent) who:

• is disabled or retired and entitled to Social Security benefits; or
• died after having worked long enough in a job where he or she paid Social Security taxes.

The child also must be:

• Unmarried; and
• Younger than age18; or
• 18-19 years old and a full-time student (no higher than grade 12); or
• 18 or older and disabled. (The disability must have started before age 22.)

Within a family, a child may receive up to one-half of the parent’s full retirement or disability benefit, or 75 percent of the deceased parent’s basic Social Security benefit. However, there is a limit to the amount of money that can be paid to a family. The maximum family payment can be from 150 to 180 percent of the parent’s full benefit amount. If the total amount payable to all family members exceeds this limit, each child’s benefit is reduced proportionately until the total equals the maximum allowable amount.

For example, if you are retired with a minor child and your benefit payment is $1,000 a month, your minor child could get up to half of that each month, or $500. However, if you had two minor children in your care, the maximum your entire family could receive would be between $1,500 and $1,800 — that’s $1,000 for you and between $250 and $400 per child.

Whether you receive Social Security benefits because you have a disabling condition, due to the death of a spouse or because you’ve reached retirement, if you have minor children, you’ll want to read Social Security’s online publication, Benefits for Children at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10085.html.

RETIREMENT ESTIMATOR CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY

It’s been only a year since Social Security’s Retirement Estimator went online, but you’d never know it based on the praise it continues to receive from users. It was rated the best online service in government by the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for Federal Websites in February 2009. In the most recent ACSI report, the Retirement Estimator tied for first place with Social Security’s online application.

The Retirement Estimator is so popular, in fact, that people have visited the website more than three million times in the past year. You can visit it yourself online at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator.

The online Retirement Estimator is a convenient, secure and quick financial planning tool that lets workers calculate how much they might expect to receive in Social Security benefits when they retire. The attractive feature of this calculator is that it uses your earnings information on file at Social Security, without displaying your personal information. So you get an instant estimate of your future retirement benefits. And, it’s so easy to use. The Estimator even gives you the opportunity to run personalized scenarios and “what if” situations. For example, you can change the date you expect to retire or change expected future earnings to create and compare different retirement options. This can help you as you plan ahead.To use the Retirement Estimator, you must have enough Social Security credits to qualify for benefits and you must not be receiving benefits currently.

Experience the best online service in government now by visiting Social Security’s Retirement Estimator at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. Then, once you’ve sketched out your retirement plans, you’ll know where to go when the time comes to apply for benefits: www.socialsecurity.gov.

IF FACEBOOK CAN’T HELP, MAYBE SOCIAL SECURITY CAN

People who use social networking websites know that it can be exciting to reconnect with long lost friends and relatives over the Internet. Such surprise connections can be fun and conjure up memories of times forgotten. But what if you have a more serious situation and you need to locate a particular person? Perhaps Social Security can help.

Social Security is in the business of paying benefits, not reconnecting people. But, in some cases, we will do what we can to help. We will attempt to forward a letter to a missing person under circumstances involving a matter of great importance, such as a death or serious illness in the missing person’s immediate family, or a sizeable amount of money that is due the missing person. Also, the circumstances must concern a matter about which the missing person is unaware and would undoubtedly want to be informed. In less dire cases, such as when a son, daughter, brother or sister want to establish contact, we will write to the missing person, rather than forwarding a letter.

Because this service is not related in any way to a Social Security program, its use must be limited so that it does not interfere with our regular program activities. There is no charge for forwarding letters that have a humanitarian purpose. However, we must charge a $25 fee to cover our costs when the letter is to inform the missing person of money or property due. This fee is not refundable. The fee should be paid by a check made payable to the Social Security Administration. We must read each letter we forward to ensure that it contains nothing that could prove embarrassing to the missing person if read by a third party. Letters should be in plain, unstamped, unsealed envelopes showing only the missing person’s name. Nothing of value should be enclosed.

To try to locate an address in our records, we’ll need the missing person’s Social Security number or identifying information such as date and place of birth, father’s name, and the mother’s full birth name. Unless a missing person is receiving benefits under a program Social Security administers, we would not have a home address for them. Usually, we forward a letter in care of the employer who most recently reported earnings for the person.

Requests for letter forwarding should be sent to: Social Security Administration, Letter Forwarding, P.O. Box 33022, Baltimore, MD 21290-3022. Learn more about this service at www.socialsecurity.gov/foia/html/ltrfwding.htm.