Social Security: Websites to find Social Security help

photo Gregory Holmes, district manager for Social Security

In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That may be a rhyme you remember from grade school when learning about Christopher Columbus and his voyage that would lead him to discover the New World.

You can discover a new world of information and services at www.socialsecurity.gov.

For example, you can apply online for Social Security retirement benefits. Not sure whether you're ready for retirement? We can help you plot your course with our online benefit planners. Perhaps the most impressive of these planners is the online Retirement Estimator, which you can use to get quick and accurate estimates of your retirement benefits based on different scenarios. You also can apply online for disability benefits and even apply online for help to pay the costs of the Medicare prescription drug program at www.socialsecurity.gov.

Information on retirement, survivors, disability, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicare are easily

accessible on Social Security's homepage at www.socialsecurity.gov. But the website offers much more. The site allows you to discover the entire Social Security program.

A good place to set your sails into the retirement planning winds is our Retirement Estimator at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. There, you can get an instant, personalized estimate of your future retirement benefits. Plug in different information, such as projected future wages or different retirement dates, to get varied benefit estimates that will help you decide when to draw up the anchor and venture into the seas of retirement.

Another great place on the horizon of our website: my Social Security. Create your online account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount and then you'll always have quick and easy access to see and update your information. You can use my Social Security to get estimates of your retirement, disability, and survivors benefits, view your earnings record, and estimate the Social Security and Medicare taxes you've paid. If you already receive Social Security benefits, you can use your account to get an instant benefit verification letter, check your benefit and payment information, and to change your address, phone number, and direct deposit information. Come aboard now at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Spend some time aboard www.socialsecurity.gov. You will be pleasantly surprised at all you can discover there.

Gregory Holmes is the district manager for Social Security in Chattanooga

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