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

Can a spouse collect on her husband's social security if she reaches retirement age before her husband? No. In order for a wife to collect Social Security benefits on her husband's income the following requirements must be satisfied:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit must be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible for benefits, consequently he should also be at least age 62. What's more, the husband has to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to receive benefits based on his earnings. The husband can then choose to postpone receiving benefits. This course of action is called "file and suspend".

To give you an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can start collecting benefits based on her income, but she is unable to receive benefits based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and applies for benefits.

However, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is only 62, then the wife can start collecting based on her husband's income (again the husband must apply for his Social Security before his spouse will be able to collect based on his earnings).

In the examples above, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own income as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she has at least forty quarters and qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit once her husband qualifies for Social Security.

Several points to consider before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she becomes full retirement age (age 66 for folks retiring now), then she'll receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she applies at age 62, her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't help the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits don't include delayed credits. Additionally, it doesn't benefit the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not receive any rise in benefits that he will get by waiting to receive benefits.

When a spouse reaches full retirement age and is qualified to apply for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and delay collecting her own benefit in order to accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings so long as you were married for at least 10 years and you are at present unmarried. For people with more than one ex-spouse which you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you will get the highest benefit you qualify for. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse does not need to wait around for a former husband to start collecting benefits as long as the couple has been divorced for a minimum of two years when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so even though this article has assumed that the wife is generally the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than her husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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