Time’s up: Millions of Americans are about to lose Social Security benefits - MarketWatch‎

April is turning out to be cruelest month in more ways than one. Not only do we have to deal with all things tax day, but some boomers face another costly deadline on April 29: they could lose many thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits.

Yep, that’s the last day folks who qualify can take full advantage of the file-and-suspend Social Security claiming strategy. After April 29, 2016, file-and-suspend becomes a thing of the past.

Why so? The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, signed into law in November, essentially strangled shut what lawmakers described as unintended loopholes — the file-and-suspend and the restricted application strategies.

Update: Readers have pelted us with hundreds of questions since this column was first published. Read Bob Powell’s follow up answering their questions: Everything you need to know about the Social Security claiming deadline.

It’s important to note that April 29 is the deadline for the file-and-suspend strategy, but it is not the deadline for filing a restricted application.

“The restricted application strategy doesn’t really have a deadline,” said Jeffrey Levine, a retirement expert with Ed Slott & Co. and author of The Definitive Guide to Required Minimum Distributions for Baby Boomers. “You just had to be a certain age or older by Jan. 1, 2016 to be able to use it when you’re eligible.”

Under the old law, those born before Jan. 2, 1954 could not file a restricted application before full retirement age (FRA), but they could file a restricted application at or after FRA, according to Andy Landis, author of Social Security: The Inside Story.

Under the new law, you can no longer file a restricted application at all — before, at, or after your full retirement age — if your birth date is after Jan. 1, 1954.

And know this: There is a clear distinction between “file and suspend” and “restricted application,” said Michael Kitces, author of the Nerd’s Eye View blog. “By far, the most common question I get is someone thinks they need to do something by April 29, because they think they’re doing a file and suspend (and call it file and suspend), when the reality is that they plan to do a restricted application,” Kitces said in an email. - Read More at the marketwatch
Time’s up: Millions of Americans are about to lose Social Security benefits

Everything you need to know about the Social Security claiming deadline