Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... It took me 153 days, 74 phone calls and two five-figure checks to fix a single-digit mistake I made on my Social Security application: I had entered the right day and month but the wrong year to begin receiving my maximum retirement benefits when I turned 70. Over the years, enough other people have slipped up similarly, or simply changed their minds, that the Social Security Administration has a one-page form to annul an application (SSA-521).