Don't Forget About The Social Security Spousal BenefitThe Article Bloke

When can a husband or wife start collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following conditions have been met:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit is required to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible for benefits, consequently he should also be at least age 62. Additionally, the husband will have to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his income. The husband can then choose to postpone receiving benefits. This strategy is referred to as "file and suspend".

To give you an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 60, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her income, but she cannot collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.

On the other hand, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is only 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's income (remember, the husband will have to apply for his Social Security before his wife can collect based on his income).

In the instances mentioned above, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings as early as age 62 (assuming she has not less than forty quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then change to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit once her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

A few points to contemplate before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she becomes full retirement age (age 66 for people 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, her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't help the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. In addition, it won't benefit the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not receive any rise in benefits that he will get by waiting to apply.

If a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting the spousal benefit now and delay collecting her own benefit in order to 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 10 years and you are at present unmarried. In case you have more than one ex-spouse that you qualify for spousal benefits, you'll get the largest benefit you qualify for. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse doesn't need 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.

Finally, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so though this article has assumed that the wife is 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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