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More retirees rely on Social Security: AARP<\/p>\n
As Social Security turns 90, 65% of retirees now rely on it. A survey reveals public confidence in its future continues to fall.<\/p>\n
Straight Arrow News<\/p>\n
Older parents can take advantage of a little-known Social Security benefit that could help them maximize total lifetime benefits, experts said.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re at least age 62, you may be able to claim Social Security and the dependent child benefit that’ll provide your child with a monthly check for half your full retirement age (FRA)<\/a> benefit even if you\u2019re not yet 67, or FRA.<\/p>\n Only 1% of Social Security beneficiaries in January were children of retired workers, collecting an average $919.20 monthly, the Social Security Administration (SSA) said<\/a>. However, the number of children born<\/a> to women age 45 and older has soared 450% since 1990, government data showed<\/a>. Or an older parent with a young child could be a result of a so-called May-December marriage<\/a>, experts said.<\/p>\n In any case, more people may soon be eligible for this benefit. There’s much to consider when deciding<\/a> if such a move is right for you, but it\u2019s an option some families have taken and say has even helped them save for their child\u2019s college education.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get more calls on this than any other topic because it\u2019s not advertised by Social Security, so people just stumble upon it,\u201d said Michael Ruger, managing partner and chief investment officer at Greenbush Financial Group. \u201cThe dollar amounts can be so large if your kid is young.\u201d<\/p>\n How does the Social Security dependent care benefit work?<\/p>\n You\u2019re eligible if:<\/p>\n If you claim Social Security before FRA, you\u2019ll get less in Social Security for each month you\u2019re less than FRA for the rest of your life, but your child can start receiving half of your FRA amount until age 18 (19 in some cases).<\/p>\n What if I have more than one child?<\/p>\n If the total amount for all children exceeds a family limit<\/a>, about 150% to 180% of the parent\u2019s FRA amount<\/a>, SSA will reduce each child\u2019s benefit proportionately until the total equals the maximum allowable amount. The parent\u2019s benefit isn\u2019t reduced because it doesn\u2019t count towards the family limit.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n A parent\u2019s FRA is $1,700 monthly but claiming Social Security at age 62 cuts the benefit to $1,200. Assume the family limit is 150% of FRA, or $2,550, and four children are eligible.<\/p>\n If each child received half the FRA of $850, the parent and children\u2019s monthly total is $4,600, or $2,050 over the limit.<\/p>\n SSA would take the $2,500 family limit and subtract the parent\u2019s FRA of $1,700 for $850. That $850 is then divided by four children for $212.50 monthly per child.<\/p>\n Can I continue working?<\/p>\n You can work but beware of SSA\u2019s work penalty<\/a>. For 2025, if you\u2019re under FRA, benefits are reduced by $1 for every $2 earned over $23,400.\u00a0In your FRA year, the reduction is $1 for every $3 earned over $62,160, with reductions ending the month you reach FRA. Reductions are refunded over time with a small increase in monthly benefits once you reach FRA.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople make the mistake and think they\u2019ll take mine but won\u2019t touch my child\u2019s,\u201d Ruger said. \u201cThat\u2019s not correct. They\u2019ll go after the child benefit, too because it\u2019s claimed on your work history. If you earn too much, they\u2019ll take the whole thing back because of the earned income penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n Is the Social Security dependent care benefit worth claiming?<\/p>\n It depends on each person\u2019s situation, advisers said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have an overfunded retirement plan and have money, the impact of when to take Social Security is not as large,\u201d said Andrew Wood, retirement planning adviser with Daniel A. White & Associates. \u201cBut if you\u2019re underfunded, then increasing Social Security improves outcomes. It may be tempting (to claim the benefit), but it could hurt your retirement in 10 to 15 years” because of the lower payments from claiming early.<\/p>\n Other advisers said claiming the move could boost overall savings.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n One parent\u2019s FRA Social Security is $2,500 monthly or 30% less at $1,750 if taken at age 62. There are two children, ages 8 and 5.<\/p>\n Over 13 years, that’s combined Social Security benefits of $445,500 (parent\u2019s $273,000 + child 1\u2019s $75,000 + child 2\u2019s $97,500).<\/p>\n At 90, the parent would\u2019ve received another $315,000 ($21,000 annually) for a combined $760,500 of lifetime Social Security payments for the family.<\/p>\n Other considerations, Ruger said, include:<\/p>\n (This story was updated to account for the family maximum in the second example.)<\/p>\n Medora Lee is a money, markets and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at\u00a0mjlee@usatoday.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More retirees rely on Social Security: AARP As Social Security turns 90, 65% of retirees now rely on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5672,931,64,13986,4471,25710,7667,245,23742,77031,167394,337,246,641,644,663,451,642,450,457,5678,255,449,3997,700,5682,4995,6358,6360,5677,3161,711,3566,5681,645,448,447,456,639,662,661,646,67,132,68,643,467,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-339353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-care","12":"tag-child","13":"tag-child-care","14":"tag-childhood","15":"tag-children","16":"tag-children-and-childhood","17":"tag-entitlement","18":"tag-entitlement-programs","19":"tag-explainer","20":"tag-family","21":"tag-know","22":"tag-modular","23":"tag-modular-story","24":"tag-negative","25":"tag-not","26":"tag-overall","27":"tag-overall-negative","28":"tag-pension","29":"tag-personal-finance","30":"tag-point","31":"tag-programs","32":"tag-retirement","33":"tag-retirement-u0026-pension","34":"tag-security","35":"tag-seniors","36":"tag-seniors-u0026-retirement","37":"tag-services","38":"tag-social","39":"tag-social-security","40":"tag-social-security-administration","41":"tag-social-services","42":"tag-story","43":"tag-the","44":"tag-to","45":"tag-to-the-point","46":"tag-ttp","47":"tag-ttp-explainer-not-visual","48":"tag-ttp-what-we-know","49":"tag-u0026","50":"tag-united-states","51":"tag-unitedstates","52":"tag-us","53":"tag-visual","54":"tag-we","55":"tag-what"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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