One of the most important features of the Social Security system is that it works for both you and your spouse. This can be the case even if your husband or wife never paid into the system.
To qualify for spousal benefits, you must be at least sixty-two and have been married to the principal breadwinner in the family for at least a year.
There are some exceptions to this last rule: If your spouse and you have been married to each other for less than a year but she or he is the biological parent of your child, the spouse qualifies for benefits. No matter what your age, you can receive spousal benefits if you’re caring for your partner’s child.
If you have been divorced from your spouse for at least ten years, you may be eligible for Social Security benefits. We’ll discuss this in detail later on.
Although your spouse may be eligible for spousal benefits, she shouldn’t take them if her own benefit, which is based on her own work history, would be larger. Clearly, her (and your) objective should be to get the largest benefit possible. There are a variety of strategies to do this. Before we discuss them, though, we’ll talk briefly about one strategy that no longer exists: file and suspend.
Under previous Social Security rules, it was possible to file for benefits and then suspend them—that is, not take them—when you reached FRA. Once you did this your spouse could then apply only for spousal benefits (based on your work history). Meanwhile, your benefits would grow because you suspended them. Ideally, your spouse would take spousal benefits until you both reached age seventy, at which time both you and your spouse would take your own full benefits. Thus, rather than waiting to draw income from Social Security, one spouse would receive benefits while both of your benefits would grow.
This file and suspend strategy wasn’t used by large numbers of people, mostly because they weren’t aware of it. However, it began growing in popularity. At that point, the federal government decided to step in. In 2015 Congress passed a law that ended file and suspend as a viable option.
A similar, but not identical, strategy was also closed off in 2015. If you were born after January 1, 1954, you are no longer allowed to file what is called a restricted application—that is to apply only for spousal benefits. The object of this strategy was to file just for your spousal benefits. Because you delay taking your retirement benefits, your own benefits would grow. Then, when you reached age seventy, you would drop the spousal benefit and take your full benefit instead. It was a nice strategy, but sadly you’re not allowed to use it anymore—unless your birthday comes before January 1, 1954.
When applying for these benefits, you will need proof of your marriage and its date to establish that you’ve been married at least a year (a marriage certificate is fine). You’ll also need proof of your age.
As of June 2015, the date of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriage became legal in all states of the union. As a consequence, those within such a marriage can now apply for Social Security benefits. In fact, the SSA had granted such benefits to same-sex couples even before Obergefell v. Hodges but only in states where same-sex marriage was legal.
In those states that recognize common-law marriage the SSA will treat you as if you’re married, and you can file for spousal benefits. Currently the states recognizing common-law marriage are:
At this point we need to reintroduce a term: primary insurance amount (PIA), which is the total amount of money a beneficiary is eligible to receive once she or he reaches full retirement age (FRA). This is important here because your spousal benefit can’t exceed 50 percent of your partner’s PIA. For instance, if Janet’s PIA is $2,700 and her husband, Roger, decides to take spousal benefits, the highest such benefits can be is $1,350 (since $2,700 ÷ 2 = $1,350).
However, even though your spousal benefit can be up to 50 percent of your partner’s PIA, it doesn’t have to be that much. For one thing, if you claim spousal benefits before reaching your full retirement age, the amount will be reduced for each month before your FRA (the exception to this is if the partner claiming the spousal benefits is taking care of your child and the child is under age sixteen).
The following table shows reductions in the 50 percent benefit depending how early you claim it.
| Age | Percentage of Partner’s Benefit |
|---|---|
65 | 45.8% |
64 | 41.7% |
63 | 37.5% |
62 | 35% |
As you can see, it pays to wait until reaching your full retirement age to claim spousal benefits—just as it does with your full retirement benefits. However, and this is an important difference, unlike your full retirement benefit, your spousal benefit does not increase if you wait to claim it until you’re seventy years old. It can never go above that 50 percent of your partner’s full benefit. On the other hand, if the partner taking full benefits waits until she or he turns seventy to claim, that 50 percent can be a significantly larger sum of money.
The Social Security Administration has a calculator to help give you a rough idea of what your spousal benefits would be. Go to www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html.