Social Security Benefit Estimator (Simplified) mechanism

Model scope

Use a year-dated SSA table selected from an explicit benefit year, and direct users to ssa.gov/myaccount for an official estimate. The current specification is suitable only as a clearly labeled educational approximation after the benefit year, rounding convention, FRA determination, and claiming-month treatment are made explicit.

• The PIA bend-point formula is broadly standard, but the specification does not identify the benefit year; SSA bend points are year-dated and must be selected explicitly.
• The claiming-age adjustment factors are not universal percentages: they depend on full retirement age, claiming month, and applicable SSA rules. Age-only factors are a coarse simplification.
• The specification does not define required rounding rules for AIME, PIA, or the final monthly benefit. Official SSA calculations include specific rounding conventions.
• The input description conflates an AIME with a career earnings history. A career earnings history requires indexing, computation of the highest applicable earnings years, and conversion to AIME before the bend-point formula can be applied.
• The simplified formula omits possible real-world adjustments and eligibility issues, including WEP/GPO where applicable, earnings-test withholding before full retirement age, family benefits, survivor benefits, taxes, and legislative changes.

Units and conventions

• AIME is an average indexed monthly earnings amount in U.S. dollars per month, not annual earnings.
• Bend points are the 2025 SSA PIA bend points: $1,226 and $7,391 of AIME per month.
• PIA is calculated as 90% of the first $1,226 of AIME, 32% of AIME from $1,226 through $7,391, and 15% of AIME above $7,391.
• Claiming-age factors are expressed as multipliers applied to the unreduced PIA.
• These vectors use a simplified age-in-whole-years interpretation and do not model claiming-month adjustments.
• Dollar outputs below retain cents for transparent arithmetic; an implementation must specify whether and how SSA-style rounding is applied.

Inspectable vector

One of 4 source-bound review vectors:

{
  "inputs": {
    "AIME_usd_per_month": 1226,
    "claiming_age_years": 67,
    "full_retirement_age_years": 67,
    "benefit_year": 2025
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "PIA_before_claiming_adjustment_usd_per_month": 1103.4,
    "claiming_adjustment_factor": 1,
    "estimated_monthly_benefit_usd": 1103.4
  },
  "reference_data": {
    "bend_point_1_usd_per_month": 1226,
    "bend_point_2_usd_per_month": 7391,
    "first_segment_rate": 0.9,
    "second_segment_rate": 0.32,
    "third_segment_rate": 0.15,
    "claiming_factor_at_age_67_for_FRA_67": 1,
    "source_convention": "SSA 2025 indexed PIA bend-point table and SSA statutory claiming-age adjustment schedule"
  },
  "working": "AIME is exactly the first 2025 bend point: $1,226.00. First segment = 0.90 × 1,226 = 1,103.40. No AIME remains for the second or third segments. PIA = 1,103.40 + 0.00 + 0.00 = $1,103.40. At FRA 67, factor = 1.00. Estimated benefit = 1,103.40 × 1.00 = $1,103.40 per month."
}

Failure boundary

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The specification does not provide a year for the bend points or claiming-age factors, so the estimator cannot produce a uniquely reproducible numeric result without additional table inputs. It also must reject claiming ages outside 62–70 and explicitly disambiguate monthly AIME from annual earnings; otherwise it can return undefined or materially incorrect benefits.

Other records

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json
• evidence-tranche7/tranche7-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json