MBR/PHUS Variables
The Master Benefits Records (MBR) is SSA's main file to track who is receiving Old
Age Survivor and Disability (OASDI) benefits, the reason for receipt, and the monthly
benefit amounts payable to the individual. The MBR also contains records detailing
applications to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), including dates of disability
adjudication, date of disability entitlement, and date of disability onset as well
as date an individual ceased receiving a benefit (if applicable).
The Payment History Update System (PHUS) contains actual payments delivered to OASDI
beneficiaries. The data from the PHUS may differ from what are contained on the MBR
due to discrepancies between the timing of SSA awarded amounts and the actual payments
made to participants. This situation would be expected to affect disability cases
more than aged cases because it takes more time to establish eligibility to receive
disability.
Individuals are eligible to receive benefits due to their own earnings history and
age, as well as due to a spouse's earnings history and age. In this section retirement
and disability are "own" benefits while aged spouse, widowed spouse, and other are
"spouse" benefits. The age requirements for receiving each type of benefit are as
follows:
- Retire - minimum age 62 (reduced benefit), full retirement age (full benefit) - Disability - under age 65 or full retirement age, whichever is greater; at full
retirement age, these benefits convert to retirement.
- Aged Spouse - minimum age 62(reduced benefit), full retirement age (full benefit),
spouse must be retired or disabled
- Widowed Spouse - minimum age 60(reduced benefit), full retirement age (full benefit),
spouse must be deceased
- Other - no age requirements Until the year 2000, the full retirement age was 65. From 2000 to 2022, the full retirement
age is increasing by 2 months each year so that by 2022 the full retirement age will
be 67.
The benefits reported in this section are total benefits received at a point in time.
The MBR research extract provided by SSA to create the Gold Standard contains information
about different reasons for receiving benefits but does not always allow the amount
due to each reason to be accurately separated from the total. Hence we have elected
to report total benefits at a point in time and researchers should be careful to note
that when an individual is receiving both own retirement and aged spouse benefits,
the amounts listed for each benefit type will be redundant, i.e. there is really only
one total amount and two reasons for receiving it.
SSA calculates benefits based on an individual's lifetime earnings history following
rules which they publish in "Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security
Bulletin," available for each tax year on the Social Security website, www.ssa.gov.
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pos_phus_retire_benefit_totamt
