Key Points
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Social Security will pay benefits based on your partner’s work record if the spousal benefit is higher than your own retirement benefits.
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Spousal benefits max out at 50% of your significant other’s full retirement benefit.
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You won’t collect a higher spousal benefit if you delay Social Security past age 67.
You may be familiar with the basics of Social Security spousal benefits: Essentially, you can qualify for up to 50% of your spouse’s primary insurance amount (i.e., their benefit at age 67 if they were born after 1959). But you can’t claim both your own benefit and your spouse’s — you get the bigger of the two benefits, but not both. If you’re divorced and the marriage lasted at least 10 years, you can still get spousal benefits as long as your ex is already claiming. Also, you can only claim spousal benefits if your partner already gets Social Security.
These are the basic requirements. But understanding the lesser-known Social Security rules for married people could put more money in your pocket and help you avoid unwanted surprises. Here are a few rules every married couple needs to know.
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1. You don’t get more money by waiting until 70
Your Social Security retirement benefit is based on your own earnings record. Social Security calculates your primary insurance amount at full retirement age, which is currently 67. You can earn delayed retirement credits of 8% each subsequent year until your benefit maxes out at age 70. You’ll also receive a reduced benefit based on your primary insurance amount if you claim early.
But with spousal benefits, there’s no reward for waiting until after you’ve celebrated your 67th birthday. Your benefit will max out at full retirement age.
However, claiming early will reduce your spousal benefits. If you started spousal benefits as soon as you became eligible at 62, your maximum benefit would be 32.5% of their check, rather than 50%.
2. A once-popular planning strategy is (mostly) gone
In the past, many married couples maximized benefits using a strategy called “file and suspend.” In a nutshell, say you reached full retirement age. You could start retirement benefits, which would allow your partner to collect spousal benefits, so long as they’d reached age 62. You could then suspend your benefit to build up delayed retirement credits. Your spouse could then start spousal benefits and switch over to their own higher retirement benefit later on.
Sounds like a sweet deal, huh? It was, but Congress (mostly) put an end to the file and suspend strategy in 2016. Now, if you suspend your retirement benefits, Social Security would also suspend any spousal benefit your significant other receives. Congress also changed the rules for switching benefits. When you apply for Social Security, you’re “deemed” to be filing for both your own benefit and your spousal benefit; Social Security will give you the larger of the two.
There are two major exceptions, though: If you’re eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) based on your own work history, Social Security doesn’t consider you to have filed for all benefits you’re entitled to, so you could still switch between your own SSDI benefit and a spousal benefit. You can also switch to your own benefit later on if you’re caring for your spouse’s child who’s younger than 16 or disabled.
3. Survivor benefits have different rules
If your spouse dies, you’ll typically become eligible for survivor benefits, which have a different set of rules from spousal benefits. For starters, eligibility for survivor benefits starts at age 60, rather than 62, though claiming early will also lower your benefit. You can also receive up to 100% of your late spouse’s benefit. Unlike with retirement benefits, switching is allowed. For example, you could start with your own retirement benefit and then switch over to a higher survivor benefit.
4. Getting spousal benefits won’t reduce your spouse’s benefit
If your spousal benefit is higher than your own retirement benefit, you don’t have to worry about the impact on your partner’s check. Even though the benefit is based on your spouse’s earnings history, Social Security doesn’t have separate piles of money set aside for each beneficiary. It simply pays a benefit based on your own earnings history or your spouse’s.
Note that this applies if you receive divorced spouse benefits, as well. You’re not “taking” anything from your ex by claiming spousal benefits, and you don’t need their permission to collect Social Security based on their work record.
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