Social Security Spousal Benefits: One More Key To The Social Security Decision
Can a non-working spouse receive Social Security retirement income based upon her husband's earnings? Yes, a husband or wife 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 for benefits, so he should also be at least age 62. Also, the husband is required to actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband may then choose to delay receiving benefits. This course of action is known as "file and suspend".
To offer an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 58, the wife can start receiving benefits based on her own income, but she won't be able receive benefits based on her husband's income until he becomes 62 and applies for benefits.
Then again, if the wife is 66 and the husband is only 62, then the wife can start receiving as determined by her husband's earnings (again the husband needs to apply for benefits before his spouse will be able to collect based upon his income).
In both examples stated above, the wife can start receiving benefits calculated on her own income as soon as she turns age 62 (assuming she's got more than 40 quarters and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to half of her husband's benefit once her husband qualifies for Social Security.
A number of items to consider before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's earnings when she becomes full retirement age (age 66 for individuals retiring now), then she'll collect half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she applies at age 62, then her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.
It does not help the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits will not include delayed credits. Also, it will not help the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she won't receive any increase in benefits that he will get by waiting to collect benefits.
Where a spouse gets to full retirement age and becomes eligible for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may apply for the spousal benefit now and delay taking her own benefit in order to accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.
An individual 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 currently unmarried. In case you have more than one ex-spouse which you meet the requirements regarding spousal benefits, you'll receive the highest benefit you are entitled to. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse doesn't need to wait around for a former husband to start receiving benefits as long as the pair is divorced for at least two years when she applies.
As a final point, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so although this article has assumed that the wife is usually the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more money than the husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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