IIRC you get a double deposit for your first one since it takes a few weeks to get started.
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Filing for retirement Social Security
- Thread starter oldfella1962
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IIRC you get a double deposit for your first one since it takes a few weeks to get started.
I don't think I did. I remember asking the clerk why it would be so long before I got my first payment.
She replied, and I am not making this up, "if you are born after the 1st of the month your benefits begin the first of the next month. The benefits are paid a month in arrears. This means your first benefits will be made in the August cycle."
I ask her wasn't everyone basically born after the 1st of the month.
She said,"Yes. Your benefits will be deposited August 10th. If your benefits are not received then call us back".
oldfella1962
Senior Member
"I ask her wasn't everyone basically born after the 1st of the month."
It's the government. That type of common sense/reasoning is beyond their collective cognitive power. Anyway I will dig up the letter they sent me and find out how many months should pass before I get paid. The week of the month isn't the problem - I signed up in March but didn't get paid in April. So probably some week in May I should see the money in my account. My wife's "home care" medical supplies (the ones not covered by Humana/Tricare) are burning up some money!
Well they have to set some sort of rules. Yes most people are born after the first of the month. Except those "few" that were born on the first of the month.
I'm taking a wild guess that approximately 353/365th of the Earth's population were born after the first of a month and 12/365th on the first.
I'm taking a wild guess that approximately 353/365th of the Earth's population were born after the first of a month and 12/365th on the first.
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On the topic of applying to the government, my experience is that the best expertise is usually found at the major headquarters locations that handle the online applications and such. Local SS offices hit or miss or sometimes downright incompetent.
I was attempting to help my wife apply online for Medicare this past December. Her 65th was Feb 1/24. There was a misleading question (IMO) at the end and next thing I realized we are now into the section for someone trying to apply for SSI disability. I tried to find a way to back out and start over from scratch. But no way, so I thought well lets just see what happens.
Holiday season passed and in Jan we get a letter from Birmingham saying our application for disability was incomplete, please fill these out and return. Sent them back explaining we made an error and only intended to apply for Medicare, so please continue processing that if possible. As a back-up plan we called the local office to schedule a phone appointment to apply. Nothing available until March something so they put that down.
Meanwhile the Birmingham office got her application approved in mid Feb and to my surprise, they back dated her Medicare eligibility to Jan 1, I suppose since we first tried to apply in Dec. And that was a good thing to us, because she already had some expensive stuff scheduled for Jan.
The local office didn't even seem to have access to the same computer system as they sent a letters stating, please call 800xxx to cancel your Marchxx phone appointment if your application were to get approved online. I actually did try to call it 3 times and every time the recording estimated a 2 or 3 hour wait. NOT!
They even called the day and time of the appointment (we were not home, we were at the doctor using her new Medicare card) and then again wanting to setup a rescheduled appointment.
I was attempting to help my wife apply online for Medicare this past December. Her 65th was Feb 1/24. There was a misleading question (IMO) at the end and next thing I realized we are now into the section for someone trying to apply for SSI disability. I tried to find a way to back out and start over from scratch. But no way, so I thought well lets just see what happens.
Holiday season passed and in Jan we get a letter from Birmingham saying our application for disability was incomplete, please fill these out and return. Sent them back explaining we made an error and only intended to apply for Medicare, so please continue processing that if possible. As a back-up plan we called the local office to schedule a phone appointment to apply. Nothing available until March something so they put that down.
Meanwhile the Birmingham office got her application approved in mid Feb and to my surprise, they back dated her Medicare eligibility to Jan 1, I suppose since we first tried to apply in Dec. And that was a good thing to us, because she already had some expensive stuff scheduled for Jan.
The local office didn't even seem to have access to the same computer system as they sent a letters stating, please call 800xxx to cancel your Marchxx phone appointment if your application were to get approved online. I actually did try to call it 3 times and every time the recording estimated a 2 or 3 hour wait. NOT!
They even called the day and time of the appointment (we were not home, we were at the doctor using her new Medicare card) and then again wanting to setup a rescheduled appointment.
Spotlite
Resident Homesteader
So……….regardless if you start drawing Medicare or not…….you still have to sign up when you become eligible to draw?
westcobbdog
Senior Member
Must sign up within 60 days of your 65th b day. Unless your employer covers your current healthcare plan
oldfella1962
Senior Member
Well I found the letter the Social Security sent me saying that my application was successful. I signed up (online) March xx and I will get my first payment on or about May xx - about two months to the day after I signed up. I chose April as my "begin month" since my birthdate is near the end of March, so they would need time to process the application. The letter said since I chose the month of April as the begin month, I won't get paid for the entire month of April - just from April xx to May xx with no prorated "back pay" from the exact day I signed up on March xx. Maybe that simplifies things for the Social Security administration, who knows? If so, that makes sense to me.
What surprised me was when I went to the local Social Security office in person on March xx they said on their website that they accept walk-ins. That is sort of a "bait & switch" because they will NOT ASSIST walk-ins. All they will do is give you a future appointment date or - in my case - give me the instructions for signing up online. Regardless, that extra 1,700 & change dollars will greatly defray the cost of my wife's lengthy home rehabilitation efforts. So I will add the Social Security administration the list of gub'mint agencies that do seem to be improving/streamlining their procedures & effectiveness. The IRS is also on that list. I mail in my hardcopies and still get my returns deposited into my account faster & faster every year. Granted if I owed money the IRS would cash that check almost the same day they received it!
- just from April xx to May xx with no prorated "back pay" from the exact day I signed up on March xx. Maybe that simplifies things for the Social Security administration, who knows? If so, that makes sense to me.What surprised me was when I went to the local Social Security office in person on March xx they said on their website that they accept walk-ins. That is sort of a "bait & switch" because they will NOT ASSIST walk-ins.
All they will do is give you a future appointment date or - in my case - give me the instructions for signing up online. Regardless, that extra 1,700 & change dollars will greatly defray the cost of my wife's lengthy home rehabilitation efforts. So I will add the Social Security administration the list of gub'mint agencies that do seem to be improving/streamlining their procedures & effectiveness. The IRS is also on that list. I mail in my hardcopies and still get my returns deposited into my account faster & faster every year. Granted if I owed money the IRS would cash that check almost the same day they received it!
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Exactly. Like everything else it seems like if you want them to take their time, they don't and vice versa.
When I applied online for Medicare I was hoping they would take 6 months, even a year to approve because I get almost zero benefit from it right now. But I knew this would change eventually so I applied during the month of my 65th, hoping it would not kick in for at least a couple months. But NOOO!!, they approved it in less than a week then back dated it to the first of my month. So here came the back dated bills due for those months.
I should have waited until the end of my allowed 60 day window.
When I applied online for Medicare I was hoping they would take 6 months, even a year to approve because I get almost zero benefit from it right now. But I knew this would change eventually so I applied during the month of my 65th, hoping it would not kick in for at least a couple months. But NOOO!!, they approved it in less than a week then back dated it to the first of my month. So here came the back dated bills due for those months.
I should have waited until the end of my allowed 60 day window.
