Clark Howard Says Delaying Social Security Locks In an 8% Raise Every Year. One Listener Did the Math and Found a $2,000 Medicare Catch.

I’ve been watching the Clark Howard claiming-age debate for years, and as someone who writes about retirement income planning weekly, I have no position in any advisory product mentioned here. A listener wrote into The Clark Howard Podcast with a complaint that should make every near-retiree pause. On the November 16, 2018 “Clark Stinks” segment (“Americans are eating less fast food”), the listener took Clark to task for repeatedly telling callers to delay Social Security until 70 without warning them that the bigger benefit could push them into a higher IRMAA bracket, bumping their Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, which are pulled directly out of the Social Security check.

The complaint stings because Clark’s advice has been remarkably consistent. “Wait till your 70th birthday. It’s the greatest gift to wait those four years,” he told one 66-year-old caller. He cites the roughly 8% annual increase you lock in for every year you delay past full retirement age, and he is mathematically correct: for those born in 1943 or later, the delayed retirement credit accrues at two-thirds of 1% per month, or 8% per year, applied as simple interest to your Primary Insurance Amount. The listener’s point is that being “right on the benefit side” can still leave you worse off once Medicare claws part of it back.

Where the listener has a point

IRMAA stands for Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. It is a surcharge Medicare adds to your Part B and Part D premiums when your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) from two years prior crosses certain brackets. In 2026, that first threshold sits at $109,000 for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers, up from the 2025 levels of $106,000 and $212,000. The brackets work as cliffs. One dollar over a threshold triggers the full surcharge for that tier, adding $81.20 per month to the standard Part B premium of $202.90 at the first level. For a couple where both spouses are on Medicare, crossing into that first IRMAA tier adds $2,297 to their combined annual premium bill.

Here is the mechanic Clark skipped past. Suppose your full retirement age benefit is $3,000 a month. Claim at 67 and you collect $36,000 a year. Wait to 70 and the 8% per year delay credit pushes it to roughly $3,720 a month, or about $44,640 a year. That extra $8,640 of taxable Social Security stacks on top of your Required Minimum Distributions, pension income, dividends, and any Roth conversions you are running. If you were sitting $5,000 below the first IRMAA threshold before claiming, the larger check just shoved you over it.

The break-even, redone with IRMAA in it

Clark’s standard break-even lands around age 82: claim at 70 instead of 67, and you recoup the foregone checks by your early 80s. Layer in a first-tier IRMAA surcharge of roughly $2,300 a year for a couple, and the break-even slides out by a year or two. The case for delaying still holds in most scenarios. The point is that the “greatest gift” framing carries a cost that does not show up in the simple benefit comparison.

The longevity argument still anchors the case for waiting. According to the CDC’s most recent mortality data, remaining life expectancy at 65 for the total U.S. population is 19.7 years, and the risk of outliving your money matters more than a few thousand dollars of Medicare surcharges at the margin. A larger, inflation-indexed check at 88 or 90 is worth considerably more than the IRMAA hit that might arrive at 72.

The variable that flips the decision

The one number that determines whether IRMAA should change your claiming plan is your projected MAGI two years after you start the bigger benefit. If your retirement income keeps you comfortably below the first 2026 threshold of $109,000 single or $218,000 joint, delaying to 70 is close to a free lunch. The surcharge never triggers.

If you are already pressing against a threshold from RMDs and a pension, the math gets considerably uglier. Adding $8,000 to $10,000 of extra Social Security each year might land both spouses in a higher IRMAA tier. That is when the listener’s gripe is most justified, and when claiming at full retirement age or executing aggressive Roth conversions before 70 becomes the smarter play.

What to actually do

1. Pull your most recent Form 1040 and estimate your MAGI at ages 72 to 75, including projected RMDs from every traditional IRA and 401(k) you own.
2. Look up the current IRMAA brackets on Medicare.gov and identify where you land under two scenarios: claiming at full retirement age versus claiming at 70.
3. If delaying pushes you across a bracket, model Roth conversions in your 60s to drain pre-tax balances before RMDs start. Lower future RMDs reduce future MAGI and, with it, future IRMAA exposure.
4. Run the numbers on the SSA.gov estimator or the paid Maximize My Social Security tool Clark recommends, then layer the IRMAA surcharge on top yourself. Neither tool does that calculation for you by default.

The listener was right to call Clark out on this one. Delaying to 70 remains the correct answer for most healthy retirees with strong longevity in the family. It is just not a free decision, and treating it as one leaves people genuinely surprised when Medicare quietly takes a bite out of the bigger check they spent three years waiting to collect.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect 2026 IRMAA income thresholds ($109,000 single / $218,000 joint, up from the 2025 levels cited in the original), the confirmed 2026 first-tier Part B surcharge of $81.20 per month and the $2,297 annual cost for a couple crossing that tier, the $202.90 standard 2026 Part B premium, and the CDC’s latest figure of 19.7 years for remaining life expectancy at age 65.

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