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Social Security Spousal Benefits: One More Key To The Social Security Decision
When can a husband or wife begin collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start receiving Social Security spousal benefits only after the following requirements are met:
1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit needs to be at least age 62
2. The husband needs to be eligible for benefits, therefore he should also be at least age 62. Furthermore, the husband must actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to receive benefits based on his earnings. The husband may then choose to delay receiving benefits. This course of action is referred to as "file and suspend".
To give you an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 61, the wife can start receiving benefits based on her own income, but she can't collect based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and applies for benefits.
Then again, if the wife is 66 and the husband is only 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's income (again the husband needs to apply for his benefits before his spouse can collect based on his earnings).
In the illustrations stated above, the wife can start receiving benefits calculated on her own income at age 62 (assuming she has no less than forty quarters and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then change to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit once her husband qualifies for Social Security.
A couple of items to take into account before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's earnings when she becomes full retirement age (age 66 for individuals retiring now), then she will receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she starts collecting benefits at age 62, then her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.
It does not help the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. In addition, it does not benefit the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she won't receive any increase in benefits that he will get by waiting to collect benefits.
If a spouse reaches full retirement age and is qualified to receive a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may apply for the spousal benefit now and delay taking her own benefit in order to accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.
You can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings if you were married for a minimum of ten years and you are presently unmarried. For people with more than one ex-spouse which you qualify for spousal benefits, you will get the maximum benefit you are entitled to. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse does not need to wait around for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the couple has been divorced for not less than two years when she applies.
As a final point, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so although this article has assumed that the wife is usually the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than her husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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