Q: I started my Social Security benefits at age 62 in January 2012. Then, just after my 63rd birthday, in February 2013, I decided to go back to work. Because I would be making far more than Social Security rules allow me to do, I immediately reported my anticipated earnings to the Social Security Administration. Several months later, my benefits finally stopped. And I got an overpayment letter telling me I had to repay the benefits I got in 2013 before they were stopped. About three months after that, I was laid off. So I ended up making nowhere near what I initially thought I was going to make for the year. I called SSA and reported this. Actually, I called and recalled, and got put on hold and got cut off and called again — and on and on. It took several months, and eventually my Social Security checks started up again. And then just a couple days ago, I got another overpayment letter telling me I owe even more money to the government. This has been the worst experience of my life. What can I do about it?

A: I have written columns in the past about Social Security's convoluted earnings penalty rules and the way they are administered. They are some of the messiest provisions in government and cause countless headaches to both Social Security recipients and SSA employees. If you read my answer to the next question in this column, you will learn what you should have done. But I know that is water under the bridge for you. The only thing I can suggest you do now is visit your local Social Security office and demand to speak to their earnings penalty expert. He or she will have all your records and can go over your benefit payment history with you.

Q: I am 63 and have been getting Social Security benefits since last year. I have just been offered a job and will make way more than the annual Social Security earnings limit of $15,000. How do I go about stopping my Social Security checks? Also, can I keep my January check because I wasn't working in January?

A: I'll answer your second question first. No, you can't keep that January payment. Had this been your first year getting Social Security benefits, you could keep your Social Security check for any month you make under $1,290. But this is your second year on Social Security, and because you will make, as you said, "way more" than the $15,480 annual earnings limit, you aren't due any benefits for the whole year.

Now, what should you do about stopping your benefits? Well, you could play by the rules, like the guy who submitted the first question used in today's column. But look where that got him! In other words, you could contact SSA and report your anticipated earnings. They will eventually stop your benefits. Then you could just cross your fingers that you keep your job and hope you don't run into problems with starting and stopping your benefits in the future.

Or you could do what I've been advising people in your situation for years. And that is to do nothing. Just let your Social Security checks continue to flow into your bank account — remembering all along that you aren't due any of those benefits and will eventually have to pay them back.

At some point down the road (it might be later this year, or it may even be early next year), SSA will learn that you have been working — either because of earnings reports from your employer or through a computer data exchange with IRS. Once they learn you are working, they will stop your checks. And they will send you an overpayment letter. But, you will be expecting it and, assuming you didn't lose all the proceeds of your Social Security checks in a wild gambling spree in Las Vegas, you will have the money sitting in your bank account ready to pay them back.

There are two advantages to doing things this way. One: You can pocket what little interest you might have earned on those benefit payments before they were stopped. And two: You avoid all the back and forth hassles with SSA — the calling and waiting on hold and recalling and starting and stopping Social Security checks that the guy who sent the first letter experienced.

What I am suggesting you do isn't exactly kosher, but it's not illegal. You'd simply be bending the rules a bit. As long as SSA eventually gets its money back, they'll be satisfied.

And finally, here is a message to both of these guys, and to any of my readers who are under age 66, getting Social Security checks, and who decide to return to work thus forcing a suspension of those checks. Once you reach age 66, you will get credit for those months in which you did not receive a benefit - in the form of an adjustment to your initial benefit reduction. Here is an example.

Mike started his Social Security benefits at age 62. Those benefits would have come with a 25 percent reduction. In other words, his monthly checks were 75 percent of his full retirement (age 66) rate. At age 63, Mike returned to work and his benefits were suspended. He kept working even beyond age 66, but his Social Security checks were reinstated at that point because the earnings limit rules no longer applied to him. At about the same time, they will recalculate his benefit rate to give him credit for the three years he didn't get any Social Security checks. So, instead of a 25 percent reduction, they will apply only about a 7 percent reduction — for the first 12 months he received Social Security benefits before the suspension. Mike doesn't have to request this readjustment procedure. It is done automatically after he turns age 66.

Correction: In a recent column, I wrote that the Social Security Administration automatically mails benefit estimate statements to anyone 60 or older who is not yet getting retirement benefits. I have since learned they no longer do that. These statements can only be obtained online at www.socialsecurity.gov.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at [email protected]. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.