Social Security Spousal Benefits: Another Key To Your Social Security Decision

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

1. The wife needs to be at least age 62

2. The husband will need to 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 for his wife to collect 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 illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, 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 becomes 62 and applies for benefits.

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

In both illustrations mentioned above, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own income as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she has more than 40 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 areas to take into account 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 half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts collecting benefits 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 will not help 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 becomes eligible for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting 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 income as long as you were married for a minimum of 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'll receive the maximum 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 is divorced not less than two years when she applies.

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

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