YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY

By DAVID BROWN

The early bird always catches the worm, or so they say. But with a little planning and patience, sometimes it pays to be late.

If you are nearing your full retirement age and are wondering whether you should apply for Social Security benefits, you may want to consider this: you could receive more money each month through delayed retirement credits by waiting to collect benefits.

For example, if you were born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age is 66. This means that if you start receiving benefits at age 66, you will get 100 percent of your monthly benefit.

However, if you delay receiving retirement benefits until after your full retirement age, your monthly benefit continues to increase. For example, the yearly rate of increase in Social Security retirement benefits for anyone born after 1943 is 8 percent. This 8-percent increase compares favorably with current average interest earnings rates on bank savings accounts.

Of course, the total benefits increase you would receive would depend on the number of months you delay the start of your retirement benefits:

- At age 67, you would get 108 percent of the monthly retirement benefit because you delayed getting benefits for 12 months; and

- At age 70, you would get 132 percent of the monthly benefit because you delayed getting benefits for 48 months.

When you reach age 70, your monthly benefit stops increasing, even if you continue to delay receiving benefits. And once you reach full retirement age, your income does not affect your Social Security benefits. So, in other words, there is no additional advantage to putting off benefits once you've reached age 70.

It is also important to remember that each additional year you work adds another year of earnings to your Social Security record. Higher lifetime earnings may mean higher benefits when you retire.

If you are considering postponing retirement for financial or other reasons, Social Security has a couple of handy online calculators that can quickly give you an idea of how much extra money you could expect by working beyond your full retirement age. Just visit Social Security's Web site at www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/quickcalc/earlylate.html#late .

Mr. Brown is District Manager of the Social Security Administration's Downtown New York Office.