According to Joe Elsasser, certified financial planner and president of Covisum, a Social Security claiming software company, the statements will particularly help individuals between the ages of 62, the earliest you can retire and claim benefits, and 70, the latest you can delay, see how the annual cost-of-living adjustments would affect monthly benefit checks.
Of course, everyone would benefit from knowing this information, as Elasser also argues, but this segment of the population would be especially well served by checking “The best way to think about it is, what kind of living standard would Social Security provide if you continue to work, continue to basically get wages that are in line with inflation. That’s what the Social Security statement tells you.”
However, these statements can only work with the information available now; they cannot predict wages or adjustments in the cost of living that would substantially change the situation. As Jim Blair, vice president of Premier Social Security Consulting and a former Social Security administrator, explains.
The easiest way to do this is to ensure that your earnings history is correct and accurately reflects your wage history. It is always easier to fix mistakes as they happen when enough time has passed for records to get lost.
If there is a mistake, correcting it is as easy as taking the correct W-2 form to a local Social Security Administration office. Tax returns, wage stubs, pay slips, personal wage records, or other documents can also be used to verify the information. But even if all records are correct, you may end up getting fewer benefits than expected due to the potential shortfall in the Social Security Trusts. Payroll taxes should still sustain a portion of the theoretically allocated benefits, but it may not be the full amount, depending on whether or not Congress shores up the program.
