Social Security Spousal Benefit: What Benefits Is Your Wife Or Husband Entitled To?

When can a husband or wife start receiving his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can begin collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following requirements are met:

1. The wife needs to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, consequently he must also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband must actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband can then decide to delay receiving 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 income, but she is unable to collect based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.

However, if the wife is 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can begin collecting calculated on her husband's income (remember, the husband needs to apply for benefits before the wife will be able to collect based on his income).

In the instances mentioned above, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her own income at age 62 (assuming she's got no less than 40 quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit as soon as her husband qualifies for Social Security.

A few areas to consider before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit calculated on her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for folks retiring now), then she'll receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she applies for her spousal benefit 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 will not include delayed credits. Furthermore, it won't benefit the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not receive any rise in benefits that he gets by waiting to receive benefits.

When a spouse gets to full retirement age and is eligible for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and postpone receiving 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 at least ten years and you are also at present unmarried. Should you have more than one ex-spouse which you qualify for spousal benefits, you will receive the highest benefit you qualify for. One benefit that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse won't have to wait around for a former husband to start receiving benefits as long as the pair is divorced for a minimum of 2 yrs when she applies.

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