Our Journey to Social Security

(US-centric post.) We’ve finally gotten Social Security beneifts turned on and straightened out. Also, Medicare. It was not easy!

Turning 65: Medicare, and Spousal Medicare

I retired shortly after turning 65. My newly-former employer put me on “retiree health care”, which meant I applied for Medicare and the employer supplied a supplement (essentially Plan G, but Massachusetts is different) and Part D (prescriptions). My spouse stayed on their regular insurance, though now we had to pay the lofty premium.

This was ok: the plan was to keep corporate retiree insurance until she turned 65 and could apply for Medicare. I didn’t want to risk getting her an Obamacare policy, since that was under perpetual attack by Republicans, and we wanted something they couldn’t destroy.

Then my employer switched strategies, and forced it upon their retirees: Medicare Advantage. This is private insurance, cheaper for my employer, which replaces Medicare. It was a nightmare: nickel-and-dime for everything, and I even had trouble getting them to pay for a COVID-19 booster! (I had to go to 3 separate pharmacies before someone would listen to my explanation that Medicare Advantage was Part C, so they had to look in a different place. It took an hour to get them to figure that out!)

But we held on, so that my spouse could continue with the guaranteed-issue corporate insurance.

When she turned 65:

• I immediately terminated the corporate insurance, and switched myself to Original Medicare and a Plan G-like supplement (Massachusetts Plan 1A; Mass simplified away all the traps of various sorts that happen in other states), and a Part D drug supplement. Worked like a charm.
• We tried to get my spouse, a Japanese national here in the US as a permanent resident on a green card, on Medicare.
  • First, someone declared she was ineligible because she was a foreigner. This required escalation to a Social Security manager to resolve.
  • Second, they claimed she didn’t have the 40 quarters of work credits required. She did, but just barely, and they hadn’t processed the previous year’s tax returns yet to see that.
  • Third, they’d have to “investigate”. We supplied marriage certificates (along with US Consulate-certified translations), tax returns showing married filing jointly, and the deed to our house showing joint ownership in a trust. Even my US passport and original, raised-seal birth certificate, just to not miss a trick. Also, we swore under oath that we were married.
  • That finally worked, but only after she went without any obvious health insurance for a couple months in mid-pandemic. Social Security/Medicare folk swore it was retroactive, but I wouldn’t want to go to a hospital with the promise of retroactive insurance that might be granted in the future!

That got us both on Original Medicare (without the hostile supervision from a private insurance company), and Massachusetts-certified supplements that we knew would work, since the state government had weeded out the bad actors and marginal players.

So far, so good: but it took months of back-and-forth and maybe 4 visits to the (fortunately nearby) Social Security office, with the stress of unclear insurance.

Turning 70: Social Security Benefits

In the US, you can claim benefits as early as 62, though the benefit will be lower. My “full retirement age” would have been 66 and 2 months. But… if I delayed until age 70, the benefits went up by 8%/year. That’s a good deal for an inflation-adjusted annuity, so that’s what we did.

(Some people want to game the system by taking it early or late based on perceived life expectancy. But it’s actuarially neutral. There’s no point in delaying past 70, but we did want to get benefits flowing before Trump and DOGE burned it to the ground. Also, we waited to age 70, not trying to maximize money: Social Security is not an investment; it’s insurance. It insures against the possibility of getting very old and being broke because the portfolio’s been depleted. We want to maximize that insurance.)

1. Years ago: We established on-line Social Security accounts, verifying our identities.
   • Actually, these had been in place for years already. If you don’t have one, you should make one, assuming you’re an American who will one day be eligible.
   • We used their software to estimate our benefits, with my payments based on my work record and spousal benefits (half my benefit at full retirement age) for my spouse. It looked like a very comfortable inflation-adjusted annuity.
2. December 2024: Seeing the spectre of Trump on the horizon, we applied in December of 2024. We specified on the form:
   • My benefits to start in a few months, when I turned 70. We did not want the “lump sum” benefit of several months that they usually try, since that would lower lifetime benefits.
   • The Weekend Editrix’s application specified the same date, and specifically asked for benefits not on her own record, but the larger spousal benefit instead.
3. March 2025: And that’s where things sat. And sat. And sat. Our application was always “under consideration”, but no evidence of motion. Finally in March 2025 (the month benefits were supposed to start!), both applications were “Approved”. But… her benefit was on her own record, not spousal benefits!
   • There’s no way to email them. There’s no way to submit feedback on the web site. No walk-in appointments at the (thankfully nearby!) Social Security office were permitted. So… we called the national number, which was the only thing permitted.
     • Each call kept us on hold for 2-4 hours.
     • Inquiring about benefits asked us a bunch of questions, and then dropped the call with no way to recover.
     • That happened 3 times in a row.
     • Asking for an agent without specifying the problem put us in line. When we got the callback, she said she had to “look up some stuff”, and dropped the call.
   • Finally we got to talk to an agent. I thought there was this thing called “deemed filing”, where if you apply for benefits you’re ‘deemed’ to have applied for spousal benefits, and you get the larger one.
     • Agent said no, that doesn’t happen, there’s no way to do that on the web site, it doesn’t matter we said so on the application “because the computer doesn’t read that”, it requires an interview, and no, he can’t do the interview.
     • So we set up an appointment for an interview, the closest appointment being 2 months in the future.
     • As it happened, the Weekend Editrix was going to be in Japan at that time. So we scheduled an international call at 3am Japan time. (Thank heaven our US phones work in Japan! iPhones with T-Mobile over-55 everything-unlimited plan, if you want to know.)
4. April 2025: The call came an hour late, but finally happened. I was conferenced in by the mechanism of an Internet voice call, with the volume dialed up so the agent could hear both of us on the phone. Like almost all the Social Security people, he was polite, efficient, and even pleasant. I was prepared to present all sorts of documents saying we’re married, but he just said it was enough for us to swear it to him over the phone (under penalty of perjury, of course).
5. May 2025: The corrected payments started showing up:
   • I got my full payment, minus the Medicare Part B premium.
   • I also got a credit for the previous month’s Medicare Part B, which they had both withheld from my Social Security benefit and drawn from my checking. So they caught that one and properly fixed it, without my having to get after them. (They’re actually pretty good at this, just near-impossible to contact.)
   • The Weekend Editrix got a “true-up” payment to bring April’s payment up to spousal benefit levels, and the correct spousal payment for May.
   • We also filled out a couple W-4V forms (voluntary withholding), to tell the Feds to take 22% of our Social Security as tax payments. It was hard to figure out how to send this in, but I had the super-duper secret number for the local office, so we called. After a 45 minute wait, the agent said no need to mail them because he could do it for us over the phone. Which he then did, quickly, efficiently, politely, and pleasantly.
6. June 2025: Watching the payments to our bank accounts, it finally looks correct: the correct benefits (my own record and her spousal record), deducting Medicare Part B premia, and deducting taxes.

   • A minor oddity: they deduct the Medicare Part A premium first, and then taxes second. It’s as though the Part A premium is tax-free, which it is not. That is, they paid:

     \[\mbox{Payment} = (1 - 0.22) \times (\mbox{Benefit} - \mbox{Part A premium})\]

     instead of:

     \[\mbox{Payment} = (1 - 0.22) \times \mbox{Benefit} - \mbox{Part A premium}\]

     It’s a small thing, so I’m just gonna step back and leave that one alone!

So it took 7 months to get everything processed through, verifying identity, marriage, & eligibility, getting spousal benefits, and getting taxes taken out.

It was exhausting! Also, worrisome. But… for now, it’s done: we have pensions flowing and good health insurance in force.

The Road(s) Not Taken

There used to be all sorts of games you could play, involving switching back and forth between your own record and spousal record payments. Most of those loopholes have been closed.

One thing we could have done was have the Weekend Editrix apply for benefits on her own record when she reached age 67. Then, a few months later when I turned 70, she could have switched to spousal benefits when I applied. That would have gotten us about 3-4 months of a lower benefit, then trade up to our current benefits.

But… when you see how hard it was to apply in a straightforward way, you can, I hope, understand why we had no appetite to touch the system any more than we had to.

The Weekend Conclusion

Looks like it’s all sorted out, for now.

We’ll keep watching the bank accounts to make sure it stays that way, so long as Trump is in office. We don’t want to be victims unawares, of Republican mischief.

As you can see, the Weekend Publisher and the Assistant Weekend Publisher remain unconcerned. It is difficult to disturb the Zen-like aplomb of well-loved cats.

I shall continue to attempt to imitate them, contemplating the serene peace of the Weekend Editrix’s beautiful hillside shade garden.

And, of course, writing about the descent of the US government into naked criminality. At my age, I’m a bit frustrated that this is just about all I can do.

(Ceterum censeo, Trump incarcerandam esse.)

Addendum 2025-Jul-08: Trump Uses SSA for Propaganda

On 2025-Jul-04 (US Independence Day, of all things) we got an email from the Social Security Administration. Along with, apparently, about 71 million other Americans who had ever made an account on the Social Security web site. ^[1]

Notably, as you can see from the little red eye icon, the email contained one of the infamous “tracking pixels”, that tattles to somebody each time you open the email. I’ve blocked it here with PixelBlock, a Chrome extension. (However, the Chrome web store says it’s “no longer available because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions”. Apparently it’s against Google policy not to roll over submissively when they try to track you? Sigh. More corporate en<mumble>ification.)

The email was, of course, not really about Social Security. It was just blatant Trump propaganda about the passage of his “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” gutting much of the US government.

Amazingly, people continue to claim that the “OBBB” removes the Social Security taxation originally imposed by Reagan in 1983 as a budget saver. This taxation doesn’t go into the general fund, but back into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds ^[2]:

Under legislation enacted in 1983, the Social Security Trust Funds receive income based on Federal income taxation of benefits. The funds receive taxes on up to 50 percent of benefits from single taxpayers with incomes over \$25,000 and from taxpayers filing jointly with incomes over \$32,000.

Legislation enacted in 1993 extended taxation of benefits. The legislation increased the limitation on the amount of benefits subject to taxation from 50 percent to 85 percent for single taxpayers with incomes over \$34,000 and for taxpayers filing jointly with incomes over \$44,000. All additional tax income resulting from the 1993 legislation is deposited in Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund.

Obviously, it would be massively stupid to remove that tax, as it would deplete the trust funds even faster than now, when it goes empty in the 2030’s.

So, in part we’re just propagating a lie based on the fact that people don’t actually know what’s in the bill. (As in: about 20% of Americans depend on Medicaid, basically health insurance for the poor, administered to through state programs which usually rename it. That all gets cut drastically just after the mid-term elections in 2026.)

On the other hand, the bill does slightly increase the standard deduction and add a “bonus” deduction for seniors. (Though it phases out at higher incomes, and disappears altogether after 4 years.) This partially offsets Social Security taxation, in a back-handed way that only applies in some cases. So they’ve inflated that to “We’ve made your Social Security tax-free!”

That is, of course, lying. In an official US government communication to seniors.

A statement from the Social Security Commissioner, with florid Trump-worship:

“This is a historic step forward for America’s seniors,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano. “For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned.”

Ok, so who is this Frank Bisignano guy? A few bits of intel from Wikipedia ^[3] reveal an unsavory character:

• He’s a Wall Street investment banker type, coming up through JPMorgan Chase. He later worked at First Data (basically credit card servicing) and Fiserve (basically fintech for banks and the like), growing by acquisitions. So far, this is not exactly my taste and not exactly a political qualification, but generally ok.
• He was the highest-paid CEO in the United States, clocking in at \$100 million in 2017. This puts him in a peculiar attitude to run pensions at Social Security.
• Of his tenure at Fiserve, well… it wasn’t pretty:

  Under Bisignano’s tenure, hundreds of First Data and FiServ locations have closed, resulting in the termination of thousands of employees. Employees who previously had remote positions due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other legacy reasons have reportedly been particularly targeted.[24]. Bisignano was heavily criticised for his leadership during his time with Fiserv resulting in high attrition and drop in share price. His view on lack of flexibility and focusing on people showcased his lack of empathy which later was picked up by opposition parties prior to him joining the Trump administration.

• He’s a long-time supporter of Republicans, in particular Trump. Between Bisignano and his wife, they’ve donated about \$1 million to Trump’s campaigns.

If he thinks the Social Security administration is like an investment bank, he’s deeply confused about at least one of those things. Indeed, he “joked” that he had to Google what the Social Security Commissioner did… which is not exactly a signal of high qualifications for the job.

So it looks like he’s a billionaire CEO, a manager who doesn’t mind cruelty in mass terminations, who appears to have bought his nomination with political donations despite lack of fitness for the position. Smells like the political equivalent of simony, the medieval term for sale of church positions, doesn’t it?

The Social Security letter concludes ironically with a promise:

Social Security remains committed to providing timely, accurate information to the public and will continue working closely with federal partners to ensure beneficiaries understand how this legislation may affect them.

This promise is already broken by the misleading email in which it was sent.

That is very on-brand for Trump.

Once more, with feeling: Ceterum censeo, Trump incarcerandam esse.

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Notes & References

1: L Needham, “Media shrugs off unhinged Social Security email”, Daily Kos, 2025-Jul-07. ↩

2: Social Security Administration Staff, “Taxation of Social Security Benefits”, Social Security Administration web site, downloaded 2025-Jul-08. ↩

3: Wikipedia Editors, “Frank Bisignano”, Wikipedia, downloaded 2025-Jul-08. ↩