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Ways To Take Full Advantage Of The Social Security Spousal Benefit

Can a non-working spouse collect Social Security retirement benefits determined by her husband's earnings? Yes, a husband or wife can collect a Social Security spousal benefit if the following requirements are met:

1. The wife must be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, therefore he must also be at least age 62. Additionally, the husband has to actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband can then elect to delay collecting benefits. This strategy is called "file and suspend".

To offer an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings, but she cannot receive benefits based on her husband's income until he becomes 62 and applies for benefits.

However, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can begin receiving as determined by her husband's earnings (again the husband must sign up for his benefits before the wife will be able to collect based upon his income).

In both examples above, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her own earnings as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she's got as a minimum 40 quarters and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can change over to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

Several points you should take into consideration before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll collect half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she applies at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.

It does not benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits don't include delayed credits. Also, it won't help the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not get any rise in benefits that he receives by waiting to apply.

When a spouse gets to full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and postpone collecting her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits determined by an ex-spouse's income so long as you were married for at least 10 years and you are also presently unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the criteria regarding spousal benefits, you'll receive the highest benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse does not have to wait for a former husband to start collecting benefits as long as the pair is divorced not less than two years when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so even though this article assumes that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more money than the husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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