Social Security Spousal Benefit: What Benefits Is Your Spouse Eligible For?

Can a spouse collect on her husband's social security if she reaches retirement age before her husband? No. In order for a wife to collect Social Security benefits on her husband's income the following conditions need to be met:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit must be at least age 62

2. The husband needs to be eligible to receive benefits, so he must also be at least age 62. What's more, the husband has to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to receive benefits based on his earnings. The husband may then elect to delay collecting benefits. This course of action is called "file and suspend".

To give you an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can start receiving benefits calculated on her own earnings, but she is unable to collect based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and applies for benefits.

Then again, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can start collecting based on her husband's income (again the husband needs to sign up for benefits before the spouse can collect based on his earnings).

In the illustrations stated above, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her own income as early as age 62 (assuming she has a minimum of forty quarters and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to half of her husband's benefit when her husband qualifies for Social Security.

Several items to take into account before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for folks retiring now), then she will receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, 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 don't include delayed credits. In addition, it doesn't benefit 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.

When a spouse reaches full retirement age and is qualified to apply for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may apply for the spousal benefit now and postpone taking her own benefit so she can accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings so long as you were married for at least ten years and you are also currently unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse which you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you will get the highest benefit you are entitled to. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse does not have to wait around for a former husband to make an application for benefits as long as the couple has been divorced for a minimum of two years when she applies.

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

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