Important Things To Know About Spousal, Survivor and Divorced Spousal Social Security Benefits
There are three critical factors in determining Social Security benefits for spouses: length of the marriage, work history and the age of both spouses.
When applying for Social Security benefits, each spouse is deemed to have filed for both their own benefit and any spousal benefit for which they are eligible, unless filing restricted application, and will automatically receive the highest amount for which they are eligible.
If the higher-earning spouse elects to receive benefits before or after attaining FRA, their benefit will be reduced or increased, whereas the spousal benefit remains dependent on the PIA at the filing age of the spouse. If the spouse claiming spousal benefits claims prior to their FRA, their benefit will be permanently reduced.
To receive benefits based on a spouse’s work history:
- Both spouses must be at least age 62.
- They need to have been married for at least one year or have a dependent child together.
The spouse must apply for and begin taking their Social Security retirement benefits or filed and suspended their retirement benefit before May 2, 2016.
To receive benefits based upon a deceased spouse:
- They need to be age 60 and married for at least nine months before death occurs, or
- Any age if he or she has a child who is under age 16 or disabled. Should the widow(er) remarry before the age of 60, the Social Security benefit for the widow(er) will terminate – but the benefit for the eligible child will not.
To receive benefits based on a divorced spouse’s work history:
- Both spouses must be at least age 62. • They must have been married for at least 10 years.
- The claiming spouse cannot be remarried, unless they remarry after age 60, or unless remarried to a person receiving benefits as a widow, widower, parent or disabled child.
- They must have been divorced for at least two years, unless entitled before the divorce in which case there is no waiting period.
To receive benefits based upon a deceased divorced spouse:
- They must have been married for at least 10 years.
- They are at least 60 years old, or 50 if disabled.
- They haven’t remarried before the age of 60.
Next time we’ll talk about a potential pitfall for folks who plan to claim before their full retirement age while continuing to work.
By the way, if you’d like a copy of our Guide to Social Security, send an email to john.mccaffery@raymondjames.com with “Social Security Guide” in the subject and we will send it to you.
