Do I *have* to take my Social Security?

This most definitely doesn’t apply to me, so hypothetically:

Let’s say I’ve done pretty well in life, maybe like. . . starting a software company named after a fruit. You may start receiving SS as early as 62, but you’ll get more up until age 70, and that’s when the increases stop.

But I make it to 70 and decide, “Heck, I’ve waited this long, and it turns out I have enough in the bank to last my days, so I don’t need it. I’ll just leave if for the next generation.”

Is there any law that says I still have to receive it?

It doesn’t require that you take payments, if you don’t apply for it at 70 it just stops increasing the amount of payment you would recieve. As far as SS is concerned you probably died or were so rich you didn’t file for it. Either way you aren’t getting any larger of a monthly payment if you file at say file at 72.

But would you get back payment? Say you were in a coma for two years and no one was there to file for you.

Update: I just checked, and you would get back pay based upon the amount you would have gotten had you filed at 70.

OK, thanks!

But assuming I live long enough, I’m getting mine.

If it still exists.

Indeed

As a matter of interest, here in Canada we have two social security systems. The contributory one, called the CPP, is similar to US Social Security. The nominal start age is 65 but one can enroll as early as 60 or anywhere in between in exchange for reduced benefits. Either way, an application is required, so one can just decline to apply. In the case of the CPP, however, there is no moral justification for declining their generosity because it’s a crown corporation that makes a shit-ton of money from global investments with the kinds of returns that you and I can only dream of – and they’re sharing only a very tiny bit of it.

The other one, Old Age Security, is a universal statutory benefit that kicks in at 65. I and others I know had to apply for it, so again, there is the option to not apply if one feels suitably rich. But I read recently that some are being auto-enrolled without needing an application. Not sure how they make that distinction, but it’s probably difficult to stop the government from making automatic deposits into your bank account because, well, it’s the unstoppable government! :wink:

AIUI, you aren’t required. In fact, this sort of thing is a boon for Social Security. They probably secretly hope for the maximum number of people paying lots of $ in but not cashing out. The ideal thing for them, crude as it may be to say, is for people to pay in SS taxes all their working life and then drop dead all of a sudden before cashing out.

Or never be able to draw on what they put in like workers here illegally.

OAS is also deferrable for 5 years, this has been an option for the last decade.

You do have to sign up for Medicare, unless you have some other equivalent insurance. If you don’t sign up within your initial enrollment period, you will be hit with penalties that:

  • Are added to your monthly premium.
  • Are not a one-time late fee.
  • Are usually charged for as long as you have that type of coverage (for most people, that’s a lifetime penalty). The Part A penalty is different.
  • Go up the longer you wait to sign up – they’re based on how long you go without coverage similar to Medicare. Find out when you should sign up to avoid penalties.

[Emphasis mine.]

Cite.

Now they the OP’s question has been answered, I’ll just say: I love the the unvarnished directness of “Old Age Security.” You’d never see a program with a name like that in the US!

Yes and no. There continues to be a cost of living increase every year, so even if you start receiving your S.S. checks when you are 70, you will see a raise the following year.

I question whether “they” and “them” who secretly hope to lower the deficit, by not paying money due, exist.

Before I retired as a, um, government bureaucrat, if I found some (and it would be small) group of citizens who weren’t getting a benefit due, or were getting too little, or were overpaying a fee, and didn’t know it, fixing that would make my day.

I know the people here realize this, but the “they” being talked about here is the Congress. How SS benefits are paid out is specified in the law. The SS Admin. is just reading and applying the law. If you want to know what is going to happen, the SS as amended is where it is all spelled out. The SS Admin interprets the law, but those regulations are based on the law. “They” aren’t secretly hoping, Congress wrote the law with certain assumptions and goals in mind. So they are hoping you will die on your 70th birthday-that is already built into the law (ie built into the actuarial tables Congress used).

This is similar to my wife and me giving gifts to our children — I said let’s stop giving them gift cards (Amazon, etc), and instead let’s give them checks. If they never cash the check then the money stays in our account. But if they never use the Amazon gift card then Amazon gets to keep our money.

Our kids have failed to cash some checks and that is several hundreds of dollars now that remain in our account.

The kids are not forced to cash those checks.