To suspend Social Security benefits, call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 and tell the representative you want to voluntarily pause your retirement payments. You have to be past your full retirement age and not yet 70. For each month your checks are paused, you earn a delayed retirement credit worth two-thirds of one percent, which adds up to 8% per year and permanently raises the benefit you’ll collect for the rest of your life.
Who Qualifies to Suspend
Voluntary suspension is only available in one window: after you’ve reached full retirement age and before the month you turn 70. You also have to already be entitled to and receiving retirement benefits, meaning you filed a claim and SSA approved it. If you’re collecting reduced benefits before full retirement age, this option isn’t open to you, and once you hit 70 there’s nothing left to suspend because delayed retirement credits stop accruing anyway.1eCFR. 20 CFR Part 404 – Federal Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance
Full retirement age depends on your birth year. It’s 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, and somewhere between 66 and 66 and 10 months for people born from 1943 through 1959.2Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Retirement – Born in 1960 or Later
How to Make the Request
Call SSA’s national line at 1-800-772-1213, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time, and tell the representative you want to voluntarily suspend your retirement benefits.3Social Security Administration. Pause Your Retirement Benefit You can also handle it in person at a local field office; SSA’s site has a locator that finds the nearest branch by zip code.4Social Security Administration. Contact Social Security By Phone
The request can be oral or written, and no signature is required. There’s no dedicated form.5Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02409.110 – Conditions for Voluntary Suspension If you want a paper record, send a written request by certified mail, but calling is faster and works just as well.6Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02409.120 – Voluntary Suspension Procedures
Timing matters. SSA cannot suspend benefits for the current month or backdate the request. Your suspension takes effect the month after you ask for it. Call in June, and you’ll still receive June’s benefit (paid in July); the suspension starts with July’s benefit. Get your request in well before your target month so you don’t end up receiving a payment you have to give back.7Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments
What You Gain: Delayed Retirement Credits
For anyone born in 1943 or later, each month of suspension earns two-thirds of one percent in delayed retirement credits, totaling 8% for a full year of pause.8Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits The bump is permanent. It raises every monthly check you’ll ever collect and it lifts the base that future cost-of-living adjustments are calculated against.
The math in practice: a $2,000 monthly benefit at full retirement age, suspended for 36 months, earns 24% in credits. The new payment is roughly $2,480, an extra $480 every month for life. Whether that trade works for you depends on how long you can go without the income and how long you expect to collect.
SSA applies the credits automatically. Credits earned during a calendar year are generally added to your benefit the following January, and credits earned in the year you turn 70 are added in the month you reach 70.9eCFR. 20 CFR Part 404 – Section 404.313
What Else Changes When You Suspend
Your Medicare Part B Bill
Part B premiums normally come straight out of your Social Security check. Once benefits are suspended, that automatic deduction stops and CMS bills you directly. The standard Part B premium for 2026 is $202.90 per month, so plan for it.10CMS. 2026 Medicare Parts A and B Premiums and Deductibles
Do not let those bills slide. If you miss payments you can lose Part B coverage, and re-enrolling triggers a late enrollment penalty of 10% added to your premium for every full 12-month period you went without it, typically for life.11Medicare. Avoid Late Enrollment Penalties Medicare Easy Pay, an automatic bank draft, is one way to keep from missing one.
Family Members Collecting on Your Record
Suspending your own benefits also suspends anyone drawing auxiliary benefits from your work record: a current spouse on spousal benefits, a child on dependent benefits, or a spouse caring for your child under 16. The one exception is a divorced spouse who qualifies independently, whose benefits keep coming even while yours are paused.12Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02409.100 – Voluntary Suspensions If a family member counts on those payments, the credit math may not be worth it.
SSI Eligibility
If you receive both retirement benefits and Supplemental Security Income, suspending retirement will end your SSI. SSI requires you to claim every benefit available to you, so voluntarily giving up your retirement check disqualifies you. Family members on your record can still keep their own SSI.5Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02409.110 – Conditions for Voluntary Suspension
No Retroactive Lump Sum
Under current rules, there’s no way to change your mind and collect a lump sum for the months you skipped. Once you suspend, those months are gone; you can only restart benefits going forward.13Social Security Administration. Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 – FY 2017 Congressional Justification
Voluntary Tax Withholding
If you had federal tax withholding set up on your benefits through Form W-4V, SSA pauses that withholding along with the payments and resumes it automatically when payments restart. Withholding only needs to be requested again if your benefits were fully terminated rather than suspended.
How Benefits Restart
Suspended benefits restart automatically the month you turn 70. You don’t have to do anything; SSA resumes payments at the new, higher amount. To restart earlier, contact SSA the same way you paused: call the national line or visit a field office and tell them when you want payments to resume.7Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Suspending Your Retirement Benefit Payments
Check your first reinstated payment. It should reflect the credits you’ve earned, though there’s a wrinkle: if you restart partway through a calendar year, credits earned during that year won’t show up until the following January. The remaining increase catches up then.8Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits If the number looks wrong, call SSA right away; misapplied credits are easier to correct early.
Suspension Is Not the Same as Withdrawing Your Application
These two options get confused, and the difference is expensive. Suspension is available after full retirement age, requires no repayment, and builds delayed retirement credits. Withdrawal is a full reset that treats your claim as though it never happened. You must act within 12 months of approval, you get only one withdrawal in your lifetime, and you have to repay every dollar SSA paid to you and your family, including amounts taken out for Medicare premiums, taxes, and garnishments. If Part A covered any medical care during that period, you also repay Medicare.14Social Security Administration. Cancel Your Benefits Application
If you claimed early and quickly regret it, withdrawal might be the right tool. If you’re already at full retirement age and just want a bigger check later, suspension is the fit. Past the 12-month withdrawal window, suspension is the only option left.
Watch for Suspension Scams
Scammers use the word “suspension” because it frightens people into acting fast. If you receive a call, email, text, or letter warning that SSA is about to suspend your benefits unless you pay a fee or fine, it’s a scam. SSA does not threaten suspension or arrest, does not demand payment by gift card or wire transfer, and does not tell you to keep the matter secret.15SSA Office of the Inspector General. Social Security Benefit Suspension Scam The voluntary suspension described here is something you initiate. If a message feels wrong, hang up and call SSA at 1-800-772-1213 to verify.