You can stop your Social Security retirement benefits and restart them later, but the path depends on your age and how long ago you filed. If you started benefits within the last 12 months, you may withdraw the application entirely and refile later. If you have reached full retirement age, you can suspend payments and let them resume automatically at 70, or sooner on request. Each option carries different rules, costs, and payoffs.
Suspending Benefits at Full Retirement Age
Once you reach full retirement age but are not yet 70, you can ask Social Security to pause your monthly payments.1Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments For most people reaching this milestone in 2026 and beyond, full retirement age is 67.2Social Security Administration. Retirement Benefits The suspension takes effect the month after SSA receives your request and continues until you ask to restart payments or turn 70, whichever comes first.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments
The request is simple. You can make it by phone or in writing, and no signature is required.4Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02409.110 – Conditions for Voluntary Suspension There is no dedicated form. Contact SSA, give your name and Social Security number, and say you want your benefits suspended.
Why People Suspend: Delayed Retirement Credits
For every month your benefit stays paused between full retirement age and 70, your future payment grows by two-thirds of one percent, or roughly 8 percent for each full year of delay.5Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits Suspend at 67 and wait until 70, and you lock in a permanent 24 percent increase. A $2,000 monthly benefit at full retirement age becomes roughly $2,480 at 70. The higher amount carries forward for life and is included in future cost-of-living adjustments.6Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.313 – Delayed Retirement Credits
Withdrawing Your Application Within 12 Months
Withdrawal is the harder reset. Instead of pausing benefits, it erases your claim as if you never filed.7eCFR. 20 CFR 404.640 – Withdrawal of an Application You can refile later at an older age for a higher benefit, but three rules apply, all from the same regulation:
- You must file the withdrawal request within 12 months of the first month you became entitled to benefits.
- You get only one withdrawal of a retirement benefit application in your lifetime.
- You must repay every dollar paid on the application, including amounts paid to a spouse or dependent children, and the gross amount before any deductions for Medicare premiums or tax withholding.
Miss the 12-month window and this option is gone for good. Your remaining path is voluntary suspension once you reach full retirement age.
How to File the Withdrawal
Complete Form SSA-521, Request for Withdrawal of Application, available as a PDF on the SSA website.8Social Security Administration. Form SSA-521 – Request for Withdrawal of Application Have your Social Security claim number ready and the full legal names of any family members currently drawing on your record. Mail or hand-deliver the form to your local Social Security office. SSA will send you a decision notice, and if approved, you must repay within the timeframe stated in that notice.7eCFR. 20 CFR 404.640 – Withdrawal of an Application
Which Option Fits Your Situation
The choice usually comes down to timing. If you filed less than a year ago and regret it, withdrawal is the only way to fully undo the claim, but only if you can repay everything received. If you are already past that 12-month mark, or you simply want to grow your benefit from full retirement age forward without giving money back, suspension is the tool. Some people use both across a lifetime: withdraw early if they filed too soon, then later suspend at full retirement age to earn delayed credits.
Effects on Family, Medicare, and Taxes
Payments to Family Members
When you suspend your retirement benefit, monthly payments to a current spouse or dependent children drawing on your record stop for the same period.1Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments A divorced spouse collecting on your record, however, can continue receiving benefits during your suspension.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments If your household relies on those spousal or dependent payments, factor the lost income into your decision.
Medicare Part B
Suspension does not cancel Medicare, but it changes how you pay. With no Social Security check to deduct from, CMS bills you directly for Part B.1Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments The standard 2026 Part B premium is $202.90 a month.9Medicare.gov. 2026 Medicare Costs Missed payments can cost you Part B coverage, so setting up automatic bank payments is a sensible precaution. If your Medicare Part A enrollment was linked to your retirement application and you withdraw that application, you may need to re-enroll in Medicare separately.
Taxes on Repaid Benefits
If you included Social Security benefits in taxable income in a prior year and then repay them through a withdrawal, the IRS lets you recover the taxes paid. When the repayment is more than $3,000, you have two choices: take an itemized deduction on Schedule A for the repaid amount, or recalculate your prior-year tax as if the benefits had never been included and claim the difference as a credit on Schedule 3. Run it both ways and use whichever gives the lower tax. If the repayment is $3,000 or less, it would have been a miscellaneous itemized deduction, which is not deductible under current law.10Internal Revenue Service. Publication 915 – Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits
Restarting Your Payments
If you suspended, SSA automatically restarts your payments the month after you turn 70.1Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments To resume before 70, contact SSA and tell them when you want benefits to begin again. Your new monthly amount will reflect the delayed retirement credits earned while payments were paused.
If you withdrew, there is no claim to restart. You must submit an entirely new application when you are ready and meet all standard eligibility requirements at that time.7eCFR. 20 CFR 404.640 – Withdrawal of an Application Your benefit will be calculated based on your age when you file the new claim and your earnings record at that point.