Social Security Benefit Calculator Description

The Office of the Actuary, Social Security Administration, produces a Social Security Benefit Calculator. It produces the Social Security benefit for an old-age, survivor, or disability claim, given the characteristics of a particular worker (such as birth date, past earnings, and type of benefit). It also produces the "primary insurance amount" (PIA), "maximum family benefit", the actuarial reduction or increment factor (for early or delayed retirement), and the monthly benefit amount (MBA).

There are two versions of the interactive calculator: one works on IBM PC's and compatibles running Microsoft Windows operating system, either Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista, and the other runs under the Mac OS. (See the note below regarding Windows 95/98.) The benefit can be computed for either a new entitlement or a recomputation after initial entitlement. Summary results are presented on the screen; there is an option to print out details of the computations.

The calculator can produce a benefit for any historical case from the first Social Security benefit paid (1940). It can also produce a projected benefit, based on standard or user-specified assumptions, through 2080. The calculator can also produce the figures shown in a Social Security Statement. A Social Security Statement provides estimates for retirement at early, full, and delayed retirement ages, and survivors and disability benefits. Note, however, that some of the data required by the calculator, such as past earnings, can only be obtained by first requesting an official Social Security Statement.

Although we have tried to be as accurate as possible, this is not the same calculator as is used for official Social Security calculations and it may produce results that differ from an official calculation. In particular, for primary benefits, we have made approximations for pre-1965 benefits and for the frozen minimum PIA, we do not take account of more than two periods of disability or disability non-exclusion calculations, and the disability guarantee PIA calculation is only partially implemented. In addition, the calculator is not set up to estimate dependent or survivor benefits where the dependent or survivor also receives benefits based on their own record, or survivor benefits where the benefit is affected by the worker's retired worker benefit prior to death. Based on experience to date, this calculator matches the official calculations very well, with most differences due to late posting of earnings to the earnings record, or different assumptions for projected benefits.

The 2008.2 version, which takes all amendments to the law, and automatic adjustments, through 2008 into account, is now available at this web site. It updates the 2008.1 version by updating the projected benefit increases and average wage index with the economic assumptions from the 2008 Trustees Report.

The format for storing earnings in save files is different in the 2006.2 and later versions of the calculator from older versions. Saved files will have to be modified to the new format before the calculator can read them. Instructions for converting old saved cases are available on SSA's website.

The Windows version of the calculator requires a library file (oleacc.dll) which is not present on some Windows 98 systems. It may have been subsequently installed by other software installations. If you get a message that you are missing oleacc.dll, you need to go to the Microsoft web site (www.microsoft.com) and download the file (version 2.0 for Windows 98). Search for "Active Accessibility downloads."

It may be difficult to find, download, and install older versions of the missing library file; therefore, we no longer officially support Windows 95.

We now have a Mac OSX version of the Detailed Calculator. Thanks to David Phillip Oster for useful suggestions. It is functional but still under development. It has all the basic features that the Windows version has, and produces the same results for a given case. However, it is lacking the more advanced features of the Windows version, such as context-sensitive help. We will update it as we implement new features.