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Social Security Spousal Benefit: What Benefits Is Your Wife Or Husband Eligible For?
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 earnings the following requirements will have to be met:
1. The wife must be at least age 62
2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, so he must also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband must actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband can then elect to delay collecting benefits. This strategy is referred to as "file and suspend".
To provide you with an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings, but she can not collect based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and applies for benefits.
However, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can start collecting based on her husband's earnings (again the husband must sign up for benefits before the wife can collect based on his earnings).
In both examples above, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her own earnings at age 62 (assuming she has no less than 40 quarters and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can change over to half of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
A couple of points to take into account before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she will receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she applies at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.
It does not benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. Furthermore, it does not help the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not get any increase in benefits that he receives by waiting to apply.
If 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 postpone taking her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
You can collect Social Security spousal benefits determined by an ex-spouse's earnings so long as you were married for at least 10 years and you are also currently unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you qualify regarding spousal benefits, you will receive the highest benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse doesn't have to wait for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the couple has been divorced not less than two years when she applies.
Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so while this article assumes that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than her husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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