A married spouse without an earnings record (or whose record would result in a lower Social Security payment) can collect on his or her spouse's earnings record when his or her spouse turns 62. Collecting Social Security at 62 has some advantages.
The spousal benefit can be as much as half of the worker's "primary insurance amount," depending on the spouse's age at retirement. If the spouse begins receiving benefits before "normal (or full) retirement age," the spouse will receive a reduced benefit.
However, your maximum spouse's benefit remains 50% of their full retirement age benefit, not their higher amount including delayed retirement credits. (Your benefit as a surviving spouse would be based on the higher amount.)
The Social Security Administration (SSA) will pay out whichever of those benefits would give them the bigger monthly payment. However, a person can claim their own benefits before their spouse claims theirs, and then apply for a spousal benefit later on.
The first exception, which can be deemed as the Social Security spousal benefits loophole, works where an individual who remarries at 60 or later may still be entitled to Social Security survivors' benefits if the second marriage ends before the death of the first spouse.
Spouses and ex-spouses
Payments start at 71.5% of your spouse's benefit and increase the longer you wait to apply. For example, you might get: Over 75% at age 61.
Generally, the same payment rules apply to divorced wives and widows as to current wives and widows. That means most divorced women collect their own Social Security while the ex is alive, but they can apply for higher widow's rates when the ex dies.
Have you heard about the Social Security $16,728 yearly bonus? There's really no “bonus” that retirees can collect. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a specific formula based on your lifetime earnings to determine your benefit amount.
Either spouse can maximize their regular Social Security benefit amount by waiting past their full-retirement age to apply, up to age 70. Benefits generally increase 8% each year filing is delayed.
A spouse who has never worked in paid jobs or has not worked to earn sufficient credits to be eligible for his/her own retired worker benefits can receive a spousal benefit that is 50 percent of the eligible worker's full benefit.
If you've been married multiple times, your current and former spouses could be eligible for Social Security benefits based on your earnings record, subject to certain requirements.
Spousal benefits are Social Security payments made based on the higher-earning spouse's earnings record. A spouse can receive up to 50% of their spouse's Social Security benefits at full retirement age, but these payments are not issued automatically. Like all benefits, you must file with the SSA to receive them.
To qualify to get $144 added back to your Social Security check, you can enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan that offers a Part B premium reduction or giveback benefit.
If you've reached your full retirement age, you can receive 100% of your spouse's disability benefits. If you're between 50 and 59 and you also have a disability, you can receive 71.5% percent of your spouse's benefits.
Exactly how much in earnings do you need to get a $3,000 benefit? Well, you just need to have averaged about 70% of the taxable maximum. In our example case, that means that your earnings in 1983 were about $22,000 and increased every year to where they ended at about $100,000 at age 62.
The Social Security 5-year rule refers specifically to disability benefits. It requires that you must have worked five out of the last ten years immediately before your disability onset to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
The Bottom Line. A number of situations could put your pension at risk, including underfunding, mismanagement, bankruptcy, and legal exemptions. Laws exist to protect you in such circumstances, but some laws provide better protection than others.
For spouses to receive the benefit, they must be at least age 62 or care for a child under age 16 (or one receiving Social Security disability benefits). In addition, spouses cannot claim the spousal benefit until the worker files for their benefit.
Here's a very simple example:
The maximum Social Security spousal benefit would be 50% of that, or a monthly payment of $1,000. If you are that worker's spouse or ex-spouse, and you don't have your own Social Security retirement benefit, you could be eligible to receive that spousal benefit of 50%.
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.
If your spouse built up entitlement to the State Second Pension between 2002 and 2016, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount; PLUS. If your spouse built up entitlement to Graduated Retirement Benefit between 1961 and 1975, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount.