Sources and methodology

Where our information comes from

• Government benefits: the official website or published guidance of the agency that runs the benefit, and the relevant legislation where needed.
• Retirement products: the provider’s own published documents and the official register of the financial regulator.
• We do not use forums, social media or unattributed websites as sources.

How we check it

• Every benefit page lists its official sources and the date it was last checked.
• Pages are rechecked when rules change and at least once a year. Pages that have not been checked for twelve months show a warning.
• Amounts and thresholds are quoted with the period they apply to. If we cannot verify a figure, we leave it out rather than estimate it.

How our tools work

The Social Security claiming calculator uses the Social Security Administration’s published rules for full retirement age, early claiming reductions and delayed retirement credits.

The calculators use standard compound-interest formulas with monthly compounding. They use only the numbers you enter, ignore tax and fees unless you include them, and round results to whole units.

The eligibility checker compares your answers with the published eligibility rules stored on each benefit page. It gives an early indication only. Only the agency that runs a benefit can decide whether you qualify.

Live data

• Official updates: new rules and notices from the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, from the Federal Register API, checked daily.
• Inflation: the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics API, checked daily. Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment is based on this index.
• Each feed shows when it was last checked. If a feed cannot be reached, we keep showing the last good data.

Corrections

If you think something is wrong, please tell us. We correct verified errors and update the “last checked” date.