How The Social Security Spousal Benefit Works

Can a spouse collect on her husband's social security if she reaches retirement age before her husband? No. In order for a wife to collect Social Security benefits on her husband's income the following conditions must be met:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit must be at least age 62

2. The husband needs to be eligible for benefits, therefore he must also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband has to 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 collecting benefits. This strategy is called "file and suspend".

To give you an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can start receiving benefits based on her own earnings, but she can not receive benefits 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 62, then the wife can begin collecting based on her husband's income (again the husband needs to apply for his benefits before the wife will be able to collect based on his earnings).

In the examples stated above, the wife can start receiving benefits based on her own earnings as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she has at least forty quarters and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

Several items to consider before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she applies at age 62, then her benefit will only be 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. In addition, it doesn't benefit the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she won't receive any rise in benefits that he receives by waiting to apply.

When 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 collecting her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings if you were married for at least ten years and you are presently unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you will get the highest benefit you are entitled to. One advantage 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 couple has been divorced for a minimum of two years when she applies.

As a final point, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so even though this article assumes that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than her husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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