Has anyone tried the new features at My Social Security at SSA.gov?
There are new features and tools, in two different categories, (1) login and security, and (2) new features for investigating your retirement benefits (pre- or post- retirement).
I was excited last week to see both sets of new features. Personally, I have found them not to be "ready for prime time".
I'll briefly run through some of the changes. Some of the new features or functions don't work correctly and they seem to be reworking these about every day.
Logging in now provides for 3 different options:
--the usual username and password,
--the ID.me third party application they introduced about 1-2 years ago,
--and they now provide for login using the "login.gov" site that is used for many other federal government sites, including those for Global Entry and PreChk, Fincen, etc.
The latter two sites provide much more rigorous identity verification during registration. Both are pretty restrictive about that the telephone number must be associated with the registrant's name...this will be a problem for some people, otherwise they will send the necessary "code" by postal mail if the phone is not accepted.
The latter two sites also provide for using a hardware security key (such as a Yubikey or Google Titan key) for log-in purposes, rather than receiving a code by text message or email. Myself, I prefer using a Yubikey versus waiting for, and entering, a code. But ID.me seem downright inconvenient to me (too many steps).
One "wrench" is it seems that all new My Social Security accounts must be created via ID.me or login.gov. Those who are already registered under the direct SSA method, with username and password, can continue to use those. I have and use both ID.me and login.gov accounts, but I suspect that many people will be very frustrated with creating and using these accounts.
It hasn't helped that in the several days that the new login procedures have been available they've been broken and need some work (at the SSA) to fix. At one point I couldn't log in at all using the Chrome browser, and only 2 of the 3 methods using the Edge browser, and only 1 method using the browser on my Android phone.
Regarding the new features: there are some tools to investigate in detail using Delayed Retirement Credits, though this tool is a bit broken...it provides the benefit with DRCs for only the first year of benefits, thus you'll see the "January rule" being applied and there won't be any variation in benefit with the month of claiming. There is a new tool to consider spousal benefits (on one's own account) but this implementation makes no sense to me.
In sum, it's a trial of frustration with the new site. More for me as I ponder almost daily whether to file now, or in a few months, or to wait until next Spring when I'm 70.
Try out the new site and let us know how it goes. :- )