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Social Security Spousal Benefit: What Benefits Is Your Spouse Eligible For?
When can a spouse start collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following conditions are met:1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit is required to be at least age 62
2. The husband needs to be eligible for benefits, consequently he must also be at least age 62. Furthermore, the husband will have to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his income. The husband may then choose to postpone collecting benefits. This strategy is referred to as "file and suspend".
To provide you with an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her earnings, but she can't collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.
Then again, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's income (remember, the husband needs to apply for his Social Security before the wife can collect based on his income).
In the instances stated above, the wife can start collecting benefits based on her own earnings as early as age 62 (assuming she has not less than forty quarters of earnings and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then change to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
A few items to take into consideration before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for individuals retiring now), then she will receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she applies for her spousal benefit at age 62, then her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.
It doesn't benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. Additionally, it won't benefit the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she won't receive any rise in benefits that he receives by waiting to collect benefits.
If a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may apply for the spousal benefit now and delay collecting her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
You can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income so long as you were married for not less than ten years and you are at present unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you qualify for spousal benefits, you'll get the largest benefit you are entitled to. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse does not have to wait for a former husband to make an application for benefits as long as the couple is divorced for a minimum of 2 yrs when she applies.
As a final point, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so though this article assumes that the wife is usually the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than the husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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