How The Social Security Spousal Benefit Works

Can a non-working spouse collect Social Security benefits based on her husband's earnings? Yes, a spouse can collect a Social Security spousal benefit if the following requirements are met:

1. The wife must be at least age 62

2. The husband needs to be eligible to receive benefits, therefore he must also be at least age 62. Also, the husband must actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband may then decide to delay collecting benefits. This course of action is referred to as "file and suspend".

To provide you with an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 58, the wife can start receiving benefits calculated on her own earnings, but she won't be able collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and applies for benefits.

Having said that, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can start collecting as determined by her husband's earnings (again the husband will need to submit an application for his benefits before the spouse can collect based on his income).

In both illustrations shown above, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her own income at age 62 (assuming she has as a minimum 40 quarters and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit when her husband qualifies for Social Security.

A couple of items to take into account before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit calculated on her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for folks retiring now), then she will receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts collecting benefits at age 62, then her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.

It does not benefit the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. Furthermore, it won't help the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she won't get any increase in benefits that he receives by waiting to receive benefits.

If a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes eligible for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start receiving the spousal benefit now and hold off taking her own benefit so she can accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

You can collect Social Security spousal benefits determined by an ex-spouse's income as long as you were married for at least ten years and you are also presently unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse which you qualify regarding spousal benefits, you'll receive the highest benefit you are entitled to. One benefit that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse does not have to wait around for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the couple is divorced for at least two years when she applies.

As a final point, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so although this article assumes that the wife is generally the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than the husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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