Working After You Start Receiving Social Security Benefits

Working After You Start Receiving Social Security Benefits

You have filed for your retirement benefits and have decided to continue to work. You are earning over the earnings limit. What now?

Working While Receiving Social Security Retirement Benefits

Understanding how and when to report your work helps you avoid overpayments and keeps your record accurate.

When You Apply and Keep Working

If you are working when you file your online application, Social Security asks you to estimate your current and future wages. SSA uses this estimate to decide how much to pay you during the year. To help ensure accurate payments, it is best to estimate as close to your expected earnings as possible, or slightly higher, so that potential work deductions are considered up front.

If your work or pay changes after you apply, you should report the change to SSA as soon as possible. Updating your estimate helps avoid incorrect payments and reduces the risk of an overpayment later.

Your Annual Reporting Responsibility

It is part of your reporting responsibilities to file an annual report of earnings for the prior year by April 15 of the current year directly with SSA.

For reports of earnings after 04/15/1997, SSA may consider the information on your W‑2s and self‑employment tax returns to be the annual report. SSA does interface with the IRS and will pick up your gross wages or self‑employment net earnings from them after they complete processing your tax return.

Without direct reporting from you, SSA will estimate your current‑year wages based on your prior‑year reported wages. They do send mid‑year mailers requesting updates of wage information for accuracy. If you receive a mailer, complete and return the form as timely as possible.

Ideally, SSA will be able to defer your current payments to ensure any excess chargeable income is recovered before an incorrect payment occurs.

How Earnings Above the Limit Affect Benefits

If you are under FRA for the entire year, SSA withholds 1 dollar in benefits for every 2 dollars you earn over the annual earnings limit. The limit changes from year to year, so it is important to check the current figures when estimating your income.

Example

You are 64, entitled to retirement benefits since age 62, and your current monthly benefit is 1,800 dollars.

Your 2025 gross wages, including any tax‑deferred income, are 40,000 dollars, which you report directly to SSA when you receive your W‑2.

The 2025 annual earnings limit for someone under FRA is 23,400 dollars.

Step 1: Determine excess earnings
40,000 − 23,400 = 16,600 dollars in excess earnings.

Step 2: Apply the earnings test formula
16,600 ÷ 2 = 8,300 dollars in chargeable earnings.

Step 3: Convert to months of withholding
8,300 ÷ 1,800 = 4.61, which is rounded up to 5 full months of benefits to withhold.

In this example, SSA would withhold 5 months of benefits, typically by stopping payment for the first 5 months of the year (for example, January through May), and then pay the remaining months as due. Later, when final earnings information is available, SSA adjusts your record for accuracy.

While SSA can use the interfaced IRS data, you must consider that the reporting responsibilities have not changed.

As you can see, the accuracy of the estimates and the timing of the reports of wages have a direct impact on payment accuracy.

Overpayments and Your Appeal and Waiver Rights

If SSA later determines that you were paid more than you were due, you will receive an overpayment notice. You have the right to:
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Request a reconsideration if you disagree with the overpayment amount or believe the facts are wrong.
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Request a waiver if you believe you were not at fault in causing the overpayment and either cannot repay it or repayment would be unfair under the rules.
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Please be aware, for SSA to approve a waiver, you must be found “without fault” in causing the overpayment. When deciding whether you were at fault, SSA considers whether you:
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Made a statement you knew or should have known was incorrect,

Failed to provide information you knew or should have known was important, or

Accepted payments you knew or should have known were wrong.
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Each person who requests a waiver gets an individual fault determination, and SSA documents the evidence and circumstances in the file. Even if SSA finds you not at fault, they must still determine whether another waiver provision is met before the overpayment can be waived.

Best Practices if you work and get benefits

Because you know about the earnings limit and your duty to report wages, it is especially important to exercise good care and judgment in how you manage your benefits. Prompt, accurate reporting helps support a finding that you acted responsibly, and it reduces the chance of an overpayment in the first place. As always, be your best advocate.

Maryellen Eckert, EDPNA

Technical References:
RS 02510.000 – Annual Reports – Table of Contents; RS 02510.005 – Current Year Work Reports; RS 02510.015 – Closed Year Work Reports (Annual Report of Earnings);
GN 02604.100 – When to Assess a Penalty for Late Reports; GN 02604.110 – Determining if a Report is Late; RS 02510.026 – Enforcement of the Earnings Test; GN 02250.005 – Fault Determinations for Overpayment Waiver Requests – Title II and Title XVI.