Key Points You Should Understand About The Social Security Spousal Benefit


When can a spouse begin collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can begin collecting Social Security spousal benefits only when the following conditions have been satisfied:

1. The wife is required to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, consequently he must also be at least age 62. Furthermore, the husband will have to actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his income. The husband can then decide to postpone collecting benefits. This course of action is referred to as "file and suspend".

To offer an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can begin collecting benefits calculated on her earnings, but she can't collect based on her husband's income until he becomes 62 and starts collecting his own benefits.

However, if the wife is age 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can start receiving calculated on her husband's earnings (remember, the husband must submit an application for his Social Security before the spouse can collect based upon his income).

In both instances above, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her own income at age 62 (assuming she's got not less than 40 quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit when her husband qualifies for Social Security.

A few points you should contemplate before applying for benefits:

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

It doesn't benefit the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. Also, it won't help the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not get any rise in benefits that he receives by waiting to collect benefits.

If a spouse gets to full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and hold off collecting her own benefit so she can accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

You can collect Social Security spousal benefits determined by an ex-spouse's income so long as you were married for not less than 10 years and you are also at present unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse which you qualify regarding spousal benefits, you'll receive the largest benefit you qualify for. One benefit that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse doesn't have to wait around for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the pair is divorced not less than 2 yrs when she applies.

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

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