You can increase your Social Security benefits after retirement through a combination of automatic adjustments and deliberate moves. Cost-of-living adjustments raise every retiree’s check each January without any action from you. Continued work can trigger a recomputation that permanently bumps your payment. Pausing benefits between full retirement age and 70 earns delayed retirement credits worth up to 8% per year. And in the right circumstances, withdrawing your application, switching to a spousal or survivor benefit, or correcting an error in your earnings record can produce a larger check for the rest of your life.
Annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments
Every year, the Social Security Administration reviews whether consumer prices have risen enough to justify raising benefits. When they have, every retiree’s monthly payment goes up automatically. You don’t apply, and you don’t need to know it’s coming. The higher amount shows up in your January check.
For 2026, the adjustment is 2.8%. A retiree collecting $2,000 per month in 2025 would see roughly $56 more per month starting in January 2026.1Social Security Administration. Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026 These increases compound. Someone who has been collecting for twenty years is on a substantially larger check than they started with, purely from COLAs. In flat-inflation years the adjustment can come in at zero, but over the long run it is meaningful protection against rising prices.
Keep Working and Trigger a Recomputation
Your benefit is calculated from your highest 35 years of earnings, adjusted for wage growth. If you keep working after you claim and a new year of wages beats one of the years already in the formula, the Social Security Administration swaps the weaker year out. This is called a recomputation, and it raises your monthly check permanently. No paperwork is required.2Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 722 – The Automatic Recomputation
The increase takes effect in January of the year after you earned the wages, though the agency usually processes it later. When it does, you receive a small retroactive payment covering the months in between. A recomputation can only raise your benefit or leave it unchanged. It never reduces it.2Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 722 – The Automatic Recomputation
The Earnings Test for Early Claimers
If you claimed before full retirement age and are still working, part of your benefit can be withheld temporarily. In 2026, once your earnings pass $24,480 for the year, the Social Security Administration withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above that limit.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, the limit jumps to $65,160, and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 over. Only earnings in the months before you reach full retirement age count.4Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
The withheld money is not lost. Once you hit full retirement age, the agency recalculates your benefit to credit you for the months of withheld payments, and your monthly check goes up going forward. After full retirement age, the earnings test disappears entirely.
Suspend Your Benefits Between Full Retirement Age and 70
If you have reached full retirement age but are not yet 70, you can ask the Social Security Administration to stop your payments temporarily. Every month you go without a check earns you a delayed retirement credit that permanently raises your future benefit.5Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments For anyone born after January 1, 1943, the credit is two-thirds of 1% per month, or 8% per year.6Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.313 That is a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted increase you will struggle to match elsewhere.
You can request suspension by phone or in writing. Payments stop right away and credits begin accumulating. Benefits restart automatically at age 70 at the higher rate, and you can restart sooner if your situation changes.5Social Security Administration. Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments
One detail catches people out. If your Medicare Part B premium was being deducted from your Social Security check, that deduction stops when your benefits stop. Medicare will send you a separate bill, due quarterly, and you have to pay it directly while your benefits are paused.7Medicare.gov. How to Pay Part A and Part B Premiums Missing a payment can create a gap in coverage, so set up automatic billing or a calendar reminder before you suspend.
Withdraw Your Application for a Full Do-Over
If you regret claiming early, there is a narrow window to reset. Within 12 months of your benefit approval, you can withdraw your application by filing Form SSA-521, Request for Withdrawal of Application. You can only do this once in your lifetime.8Social Security Administration. Cancel Your Benefits Application
The cost is steep. You have to repay every dollar paid to you and any family members on your record, along with money withheld for Medicare premiums, taxes, and garnishments. If Medicare Part A covered any medical expenses during that period, those costs have to be repaid to Medicare too.8Social Security Administration. Cancel Your Benefits Application Once repayment is complete and the withdrawal is approved, the agency treats your original claim as though it never happened. You can then reapply later for a larger monthly benefit.
This works best for someone whose finances changed sharply after they claimed. An inheritance, a return to well-paid work, or a spouse’s income can all make the early payment unnecessary. If the money has already been spent, the repayment requirement usually makes withdrawal impractical.
Switch to a Spousal, Survivor, or Ex-Spouse Benefit
You may be entitled to a larger payment based on someone else’s earnings record. The Social Security Administration checks whether a spousal or survivor benefit would exceed your own retirement benefit, and if it would, pays the difference on top of your own.9Social Security Administration. POMS RS 00615.020 – Dual Entitlement Overview This is common when one spouse earned far more than the other.
Spousal Benefits
To claim on a living spouse’s record, you generally need to have been married for at least one year, unless you are the parent of your spouse’s child.10Social Security Administration. What Are the Marriage Requirements to Receive Social Security The maximum is 50% of the higher earner’s full retirement age benefit, reduced if you claim before your own full retirement age.
Survivor Benefits
If your spouse dies, you can switch to a survivor benefit worth as much as 100% of what your spouse was receiving. The marriage must have lasted at least nine months before the death, with exceptions for accidental death and military service.11Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits for Same-Sex Partners and Spouses
Divorced Spouse Benefits
If your marriage lasted at least 10 years and you have not remarried, you can claim on your ex’s record. You must be at least 62, and your ex must be entitled to retirement or disability benefits.12Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits Your ex does not need to know, and their benefit is not reduced. If your ex has died, you may qualify for survivor benefits on their record even if you have since remarried, provided the new marriage happened after age 60.
Fix Errors in Your Earnings Record
Your benefit is only as accurate as the earnings history behind it. A missing or understated year permanently lowers your check. You can review your record through your my Social Security account or request a paper statement.13Social Security Administration. Get Your Social Security Statement The Social Security Administration recommends checking it annually.14Social Security Administration. Review Record of Earnings
If you find a mistake, file Form SSA-7008, Request for Correction of Earnings Record, along with supporting documents such as W-2s, tax returns, or pay stubs.15Social Security Administration. Request for Correction of Earnings Record Once the agency verifies the evidence, it recalculates your benefit and pays any retroactive difference.
The Time Limit Most People Miss
You can freely correct your earnings record up to three years, three months, and 15 days after the year the wages were paid.16Social Security Administration. Time Limit for Correcting Earnings Records After that, corrections get much harder. The main exception is when a tax return filed before the deadline already shows the correct earnings. In that case, the agency can update your record to match the return even after the general limit has passed.17eCFR. Correction of the Record of Your Earnings After the Time Limit Ends It is a strong reason to keep old tax returns well beyond the usual three-year IRS audit window.
Which Options Are Still Open Depends on Your Age
Full retirement age drives most of these strategies. For anyone born in 1960 or later, it is 67.18Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner – If You Were Born in 1960 or Later Claiming before 67 permanently reduces your benefit and subjects you to the earnings test if you keep working. Waiting past 67 earns delayed retirement credits until 70. Suspension is only available between full retirement age and 70. Withdrawal depends on how long ago your claim was approved rather than your age, but in practice it is most useful for people who claimed at 62 and quickly regretted it.
If you are past 70, the levers still available are COLA increases, a switch to a spousal or survivor benefit, and correcting any earnings-record errors. If you are between full retirement age and 70, suspension is the single highest-impact move on the table.