AARP Hearing Center
Applying for RETIREMENT benefits earlier than 4-months doesn’t help you. They work the RETIREMENT claims based on the date the NH (Number Holder) wants to begin benefits - so for you, that’s 01/16/2026 so there is plenty of time.
In fact, if a beneficiary wants to retire early (age 62), you cannot even get a Retirement application to come up if over the 4-month window, even by a day. If a beneficiary tries to do this, the system will keep asking them about a disability claim since that is the only benefit which one can apply for their own benefits if younger than 62, even by a day.
Now, why haven’t you been notified that your claim has been received is of concern but you gave no detail so there would have to be a lot of guessing -
- are you applying for your own Retirement benefits?
- are you applying for Retirement benefits for early retirement (age 62), Full Retirement Age (FRA) or at the maximum age for all all your delayed retirement credits (70)?
- have you already stopped working so there is no further income being put thru if you are trying to Retire before your FRA?
- do you have a mysocialsecurity account set up so that they can communicate with you on the status?
Of course, for a disability claim, there is all kind of reviews of the documents provided but believe me, unless the person is terminal or does no have a Compassionate Allowance disability, then the process slows down to a very slow crawl because there is so much to consider - 1st being determined what type of disability the person is applying for - Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security income. The former being based on their earnings history and the later being based on income - once that is determined, the focus goes to the disability itself and medical data.
It is only 11/13/2025 Today so how did you apply 3-months earlier than your date of retirement of 01/16/2026?
Once you have been notified that you application has been accepted, you will be given a place in line but this probably won’t be updated until your benefits have been scheduled for 01/2026 - which will be payable in 02/2026 since Social Security benefits are paid 1-month in arrears.
BTW, your benefits will be paid based on your birth day
THE 2025 calendar of benefit payments
THE 2026 Calendar - https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10031-2026.pdf
Actually, if you put down that you wanted your benefits to begin for the month of July - you won’t get them until this month (August) cause benefits are paid one month in arrears and on a calendar based on your birth day of the month. Like this - [see the calendar and its legend at the bottom of the page]
However, if you have received no acknowledgement that your application has been received - that’s a problem - cause it should say something on your Social Security account that it has been received and what step in processing it is currently in -
Now, there could be a delay and if so, you will still get your benefits back to the month of selection if it is applicable and there are no other problems with the date - like if you are are filing for early benefits at 62 - you have to be 62 for an entire month before your application is began to be processed.
Since you give no details of your application then I just have to guess at what could be the reason for you not hearing anything (and that is the most disturbing cause perhaps they did not receive it).
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