Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1957-01-11
Importance OF A
Social Security
Women's Ruling
BY c. c. Darby
Manager of the Columbus Social
Security office

This discussion of Social Secur-
ity is directed to women - to wiv-
es of retired workers, to widows
of deceased insured workers, to
women workers who are in en-
ployment or self-employment that
counts toward old-age and surviv-
ors insurance benefits, and to those
dependent mothers who might be-
come eligible for survivors pay
ments if an insured son or daugh-
ter should die
Heretofore there has been a uni
form age at which benefit pay
ments could start for all benefi-
ciaries other than children and
wives or widows with children in
their care. That age was 65; it re-
mains 65 for male beneficiaries.
The 1856 amendments to the law,
however, lower the age at which
women can receive benefits. Be-
ginning with November of this
year (1956) women can start get
ting payments at age 62.
Widows and lin case there is
no surviving child or spouse en-
titled to benefit payments) depen-
dent mothers, may begin getting
survivors benefit payments when
they reach age 81. They will get
the same monthly benefit that
they would have started to get at
age 65 under the old law.
Wives of retired insured work.
ers and retired insured working
women can, if they choose, start
getting benefit payments at age
62. However, the monthly benefit
amount payable to them will be
somewhat less than the amounts of
the benefits they would have rece-
iVed had they waited until age 65.
In case a wife or an insured work.
ing woman elects to start getting
benefits before age SIS, she will
continue to receive a reduced a.
mount after she reaches that age.
The longer a woman waits after
reaching age 60 and before age
65 to start getting payments, the
less the reduction in the amount
Of the monthly benefit. AS I have
said above, however, once she
starts getting monthly payments at
a reduced rate, she cannot later
qualify for the full amount.
Let's take the example of a wo-
man who has been employed in
work covered by social security
long enough to become insured.
Assume that her full monthly
benefit amount, based on her aver
age earnings in covered work. is
$500. If she waits until she
reaches age 65 to retire, she will
get the full amount every month
from then on. But she will reach
81 in November 1856. If she de-
cides to retire then. she can get
Old-age payments starting with
November. The amount she will re-
ceive will be so percent of the
monthly amount she would receive
if she waited until she reached 65.
This will be S62.4O monthly in
stead of $500 per month. If she
waits until she is 63 to start get
ting retirement payments. her
benefit amount will be $3.50
monthly. Every year, and every
month within a year in which she
puts off receiving retirement bene-
fits up to age 65, will increase her
benefit amount slightly. I want to
point out again, however, that
once she starts getting reduced
payments. she will not be able to
qualify later for the full payment.
The above example applies also
to the wife of a retired insured
worker receiving benefits. In her
case however, the amount of the
monthly benefit she would get, if
she chose to claim payments at
age 81, would be Is percent of
what she would get if she waited
until she reached age 65. AS in
the case of the woman worker. the
Wife'S monthly payments will be
little larger each month she def
erS claiming benefits after her
62nd birthday and before she
reaches 65. However, if her retir-
ed insured husband should die at