Spousal Benefits: Applying For Social Security Benefits
When can a spouse start collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following requirements have been met:
1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit needs to be at least age 62
2. The husband must be eligible for benefits, hence he must also be at least age 62. Additionally, the husband must actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his income. The husband can then choose to postpone collecting benefits. This strategy is referred to as "file and suspend".
To give you an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her earnings, but she cannot collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.
However, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's income (remember, the husband must apply for his Social Security benefits before the wife can collect based on his income).
In the cases above, the wife can start collecting benefits based on her own earnings at age 62 (assuming she has as a minimum forty quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to one half of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
A couple of points to take into consideration before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she will receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she starts receiving benefits at age 62, her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.
It doesn't benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. In addition, it won't benefit the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not receive any boost in benefits that he receives by waiting to apply.
If a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to receive the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and delay receiving her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
You can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income if you were married for a minimum of 10 years and you are at this time unmarried. Should you have more than one ex-spouse that you qualify for spousal benefits, you'll get the maximum benefit you qualify for. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse doesn't have to wait for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the couple is divorced for a minimum of 2 yrs when she applies.
Finally, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so despite the fact that this article assumes that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than the husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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