At their full retirement age, the spouse's benefit cannot exceed one-half of your full retirement amount.
For a spouse who is not entitled to benefits on his or her own earnings record, this reduction factor is applied to the base spousal benefit, which is 50 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount.
If you are receiving retirement or disability benefits, your spouse may be eligible for spouse benefits if they are: At least age 62. Any age and caring for a child who is under age 16 or who has a disability that began before age 22.
Surviving spouse, full retirement age or older — 100% of the deceased worker's benefit amount. Surviving spouse, age 60 — through full retirement age — 71½ to 99% of the deceased worker's basic amount. Surviving spouse with a disability aged 50 through 59 — 71½%.
If you are married and you and your spouse have worked and earned enough credits individually, you will each get your own Social Security benefit.
Key Takeaways. The maximum spousal benefit is 50% of the other spouse's full benefit. You may be eligible if you're married, formerly married, divorced, or widowed. You can collect spousal benefits as early as age 62, but in most cases, the benefits are reduced permanently if you start collecting early.
Whether you can make this switch is determined by whether your spouse is already receiving benefits. If your spouse is not receiving any retirement benefits yet, then you could technically take your regular Social Security benefit as early as age 62.
If My Spouse Dies, Can I Collect Their Social Security Benefits? A surviving spouse can collect 100 percent of the late spouse's benefit if the survivor has reached full retirement age, but the amount will be lower if the deceased spouse claims benefits before reaching full retirement age.
Instead of the retired worker's benefit ending when he died, his widow could collect a survivor benefit for her lifetime. Since then, the eligibility rules for survivors have improved. The age requirements are lower, surviving ex-spouses are eligible, including surviving spouses and partners of same-sex relationships.
As a spouse, you can claim a Social Security benefit based on your own earnings record, or collect a spousal benefit in the amount of 50% of your spouse's Social Security benefit, but not both. You are automatically entitled to receive whichever benefit provides you the higher monthly amount.
The longer the spouse with the higher benefit waits to start collecting, the higher benefits will be for both spouses. Delaying the higher earning spouse's benefits could also eventually increase the other spouse's survivors benefits.
This is good news when former spouses are not on good terms. Your ex cannot “block” you from drawing your spousal benefit. In fact, he probably won't even know if you are drawing off him unless he calls SSA to ask.
What Happens If I Remarry? Generally, you cannot collect benefits on your ex-spouse's work record unless your second marriage ends by annulment, divorce, or death. Your SSI benefits payments may change based on your new spouse's record.
If you qualify for your own retirement benefit and a spouse's benefit, we always pay your own benefit first. You cannot receive spouse's benefits unless your spouse is receiving his or her retirement benefits (except for divorced spouses).
If they qualify, your ex-spouse, spouse, or child may receive a monthly payment of up to one-half of your retirement benefit amount. These Social Security payments to family members will not decrease the amount of your retirement benefit.
Yes, you can collect Social Security's on a spouse's earnings record.
In simple terms, the widow's penalty refers to a situation where a surviving spouse may experience a reduction in their overall income or financial benefits, but an increase in taxes, after their partner passes away.
family gets all the benefits they're entitled to.
—If they were living apart from the deceased and eligible for certain Social Security benefits on the deceased's record. —If there's no surviving spouse, a child who's eligible for benefits on the deceased's record in the month of death can receive this payment.
While spousal benefits are capped at 50 percent of the worker's benefit, survivor benefits are set at a full 100 percent of the deceased worker's benefit.
Yes, you can. Notify the Social Security Administration that you were married more than once and may qualify for benefits on more than one spouse's earnings record. They will be able to tell you which record provides the higher payment and set your benefit accordingly.
The full retirement age is 66 if you were born from 1943 to 1954. The full retirement age increases gradually if you were born from 1955 to 1960 until it reaches 67. For anyone born 1960 or later, full retirement benefits are payable at age 67.
If you qualify for your own retirement and spouse's benefits, we will always pay your own benefits first. If your benefit amount as a spouse is higher than your own retirement benefit, you will get a combination of the two benefits that equals the higher amount.
Another requirement is that the spouse must be at least age 62 or have a qualifying child in her/his care. By a qualifying child, we mean a child who is under age 16 or who receives Social Security disability benefits.