A claimant may choose to restrict any retroactive benefits. If a claimant does not wish to receive retroactive benefits, we must honor their decision.

EXAMPLE: John files for retirement benefits 11 months after he reached full retirement age. Based on the retroactivity rules, he can receive 6 months of retroactivity payments from the date he files. However, John restricts the retroactivity of the application to their date of filing in order to receive delayed retirement credits.

EXCEPTION: A claimant filing or receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cannot restrict retroactivity. For more information on the SSI requirement to file for other benefits, see SI 00510.001D.1.a.

We can impose an administrative restriction to prevent adverse effects on the claimant. For example, we can restrict an:

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  application to a single type of benefit when eligibility exists for two types of benefits and one benefit is for a prior period where no amount is payable;

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  application for disabled widow benefits to the month after the last month the claimant is entitled to mother or father benefits if the entitlement periods overlap; or

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  auxiliary’s month of entitlement (MOET) to the date of the number holder’s (NH) last benefit recomputation if the NH’s work caused full deduction on the family benefits in part or all of the period of retroactivity.

Whenever retroactivity is restricted by the claimant or us, document the claim using the report of contact (RPOC) screen in the Modernized Claims Systems (MCS). Be sure to include the type of restriction and the rationale.