It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Social Security has been one of the country's most crucial social programs since it was implemented decades ago. In July, close to 54 million people received Social Security retirement benefits, with many of them relying on it for their livelihood.
Social Security benefits are typically based on your earnings history throughout your career. Simply put, the more you pay in Social Security taxes, the more you can expect to receive in Social Security retirement benefits (although there is a cap). The problem with that, however, is that not everyone works or has a decent earnings history. Luckily, Social Security offers spousal benefits to help with this.
Social Security spousal benefits are payments made to the spouse of someone currently receiving Social Security. This is especially helpful for people with limited work histories or relatively low earnings throughout their careers compared to their partners. Instead of relying on their own Social Security benefits, which could be considerably lower or nonexistent, they can receive a benefit based on their spouse's earnings.
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Who is eligible to receive Social Security spousal benefits?
To qualify for Social Security spousal benefits, your spouse must currently receive retirement benefits, and you must have been married for at least one year. In addition, one of the following must apply:
- You're at least 62 years old.
- You're caring for a child under 16.
- You're caring for a child with a disability that began before 22.
If one of the three criteria above isn't met, you're not eligible to receive Social Security spousal benefits regardless of meeting the marriage time and spouse-claiming requirements. Divorced people could be eligible to claim spousal benefits based on their former spouse's work history as long as they had been married for at least 10 years.
People at least 62 can also claim their own retirement benefits and then claim the higher spousal benefits once their spouse claims retirement benefits. This is helpful for couples with a considerable age gap as well as in situations where the higher-earning spouse prefers to delay claiming retirement benefits until a later age.
How much can you receive in Social Security spousal benefits?
Social Security spousal benefits are based on the primary claiming spouse's primary insurance amount . You can think of that as the baseline that benefit amounts are adjusted around. If the person claiming spousal benefits is at full retirement age , they can receive up to 50% of their spouse's primary insurance amount.
For example, if spouse A is the primary claimer and their monthly benefit at their full retirement age is $2,000, spouse B (the person claiming spousal benefits) is eligible to receive up to $1,000 in monthly benefits. The exact amount will depend on the age at which spouse B claims benefits.
Here are full retirement ages based on birth years:
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When you claim spousal benefits affects how much you receive
As it is with regular Social Security benefits, you don't have to claim spousal benefits at your full retirement age; you can claim starting at age 62, but your monthly benefit will be reduced based on how far away you are from your full retirement age.
Spousal benefits are reduced by 25/36 of 1% each month before your full retirement age, up to 36 months. Each month after that further reduces spousal benefits by 5/12 of 1% monthly. For example, if your full retirement age is 67 and you claim spousal benefits at 62, your monthly check will be reduced by 35%. If you claim at 64, it will be reduced by 25%.
Unlike regular Social Security benefits, spousal benefits aren't increased if you delay claiming them past your full retirement age, so there's generally no real reason to do so.
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