{"id":121107,"date":"2025-11-07T20:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/121107\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T20:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:33:19","slug":"can-new-social-security-wording-lead-to-bigger-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/121107\/","title":{"rendered":"Can New Social Security Wording Lead to Bigger Checks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could a little wordsmithing by the Social Security Administration (SSA) help older Americans make better decisions about when to claim<\/a> their retirement benefit \u2014 and potentially get a bigger lifetime payment? That\u2019s the idea behind a bipartisan bill now before Congress. If enacted, the Claiming Age Clarity Act<\/a> would tweak the terms the SSA uses on its website and in other communications to help prospective beneficiaries decide when to apply for Social Security.<\/p>\n

Supporters \u2014 including AARP, which has endorsed the bill<\/a> \u2014 say these small changes could make a big difference for soon-to-be beneficiaries by clarifying the pros and cons of claiming Social Security at various ages.<\/p>\n

For example, starting to receive benefits at 62, the earliest age people can claim, results in monthly payments up to 30 percent lower than what you\u2019d get by waiting until full retirement age<\/a>, which is 66 and 10 months for people born in 1959 and 67 for those born in 1960 and later.<\/p>\n

The SSA currently labels 62 as the \u201cearly eligibility age.\u201d The Claiming Age Clarity Act, which cleared the House Ways and Means Committee in mid-September, would change that to \u201cminimum monthly benefit age\u201d to more clearly convey the financial impact.<\/p>\n

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Similarly, the term \u201cfull retirement age,\u201d when you can claim 100 percent of the benefit calculated from your lifetime earnings history,<\/a> would become the \u201cstandard monthly benefit age.\u201d Age 70, when you can claim your biggest possible monthly payment thanks to Social Security\u2019s \u201cdelayed retirement credits,\u201d would be labeled \u201cmaximum monthly benefit age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring that everyone understands what different claiming ages mean for their monthly Social Security will help empower people to make the best financial decisions for themselves and their families,\u201d says Nancy LeaMond, AARP\u2019s chief advocacy and engagement officer.<\/p>\n

The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Lloyd Smucker (R-Penn.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.), and in the Senate by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Chris Coons, (D-Del).<\/p>\n

Small changes, \u2018measurable effects\u2019<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsors say the current terms are confusing and may contribute to older Americans making poor financial decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the current structure and jargon, it is not apparent to beneficiaries that a worker [who] claims Social Security at age 62, with a monthly benefit of $1,400, could have instead earned $1,500 per month by delaying their claiming by just one year, or $1,600 by waiting two,\u201d Beyer wrote in an Oct. 3 committee report on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could a little wordsmithing by the Social Security Administration (SSA) help older Americans make better decisions about when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[76912,76911,114,76906,76909,76907,268,76908,85,46,266,267,76913,76910],"class_list":{"0":"post-121107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-aarp-advocacy","9":"tag-aarp-social-security","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-claiming-age-clarity-act","12":"tag-claiming-social-security","13":"tag-early-retirement-age","14":"tag-finance","15":"tag-full-retirement-age","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-personal-finance","19":"tag-personalfinance","20":"tag-social-security-bill","21":"tag-when-to-claim-social-security"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}