Munnell, Alicia Haydock, Alex Golub-Sass, and Nadia S. Karamcheva. “Strange but true”. Issue in Brief 9-9, Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, April 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104292.
Abstract
The brief's key findings are: (1) New rules enable one member of a two-earner couple to claim a Social Security spousal benefit at age 66 and then claim a higher retired worker benefit later. (2) The most likely person to use this strategy is the higher-earning spouse, who can receive benefits while working without losing the gains of claiming later. (3) If this strategy were widely adopted, it would cost Social Security about $10 billion per year.