Don't Forget About The Social Security Spousal Benefit
When can a husband or wife start receiving his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following criteria have been satisfied:
1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit must be at least age 62
2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, so he should also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband is required to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his earnings. The husband can then decide to delay receiving benefits. This strategy is known as "file and suspend".
To give you an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own income, but she can not receive benefits based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and applies for benefits.
On the other hand, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is only 62, then the wife can begin collecting calculated on her husband's income (again the husband will have to submit an application for benefits before his wife will be able to collect based on his income).
In the illustrations mentioned above, the wife can begin receiving benefits calculated on her own earnings as soon as she turns age 62 (assuming she has as a minimum forty quarters and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to half of her husband's benefit once her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
A number of points to take into consideration before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit calculated on her husband's earnings when she becomes full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she starts collecting benefits at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.
It does not help the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits will not include delayed credits. In addition, it won't benefit the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not get any increase in benefits that he will get by waiting to apply.
Where a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting the spousal benefit now and hold off taking her own benefit in order to build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
An individual can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income so long as you were married for at least 10 years and you are also currently unmarried. For people with more than one ex-spouse that you meet the requirements for spousal benefits, you'll get the highest benefit you qualify for. One benefit that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse does not need to wait for a former husband to start receiving benefits as long as the couple is divorced for a minimum of two years when she applies.
Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so while this article has assumed that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than the husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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