The Social Security Spousal Benefit You Might Be Missing

You may have taken a leave of absence (or accepted a job paying less) to help care for family members, and now, you’re worried that there will be little to no retirement income available to you because you didn’t work enough years to build up a meaningful Social Security benefit.

I hear this worry from women all the time. They feel like the years they spent raising children instead of advancing a career meant they missed out on building their own Social Security benefit.

But here’s what I want you to hear. There’s an entire Social Security benefit designed specifically around your choice to spend time raising children and caring for family members. It pays you based on your spouse’s record instead of your own, and it’s entirely yours. My real worry is that you may be leaving money on the table just because no one ever explained how it works.

How much the spousal benefit pays, and why waiting won’t increase it

First, I’ll discuss the cap, because it catches a lot of people off guard. Your spousal benefit maxes out at 50% of your spouse’s primary insurance amount (PIA). That PIA is the monthly check your spouse would get at their full retirement age (FRA) before adding any extra credits for delaying their FRA or subtracting money for taking their benefit early. So, picture your husband receiving a full benefit of $2,400 per month. Then picture the max amount you could receive as a spouse being $1200 per month. But to achieve this max amount, you must delay until your own FRA.

I see a lot of good couples make the wrong call here. Your spouse can delay their claim all the way to age 70, and many do, since their benefit increases about 8% annually after their FRA via something called delayed retirement credits. Great for them! The agency puts it about as plainly as the government ever does: those delayed credits don’t raise benefits for anyone else on the record. So no matter how long your husband delays claiming, your spousal benefit is figured off 50% of that half-of-full-retirement number, never the larger amount he leaves behind.

But your timing is another story altogether, and I want you to sit with this part, because claiming early reduces your spousal benefit permanently. Let’s say your FRA is 67 and you choose to file for your spousal benefit at age 62. You’ll reduce it to about 32.5% of your spouse’s full benefit instead of the whole 50%, and that reduced percentage will stay with you for the rest of your life. It doesn’t come back to 50% when you reach age 67. Whatever you decide at age 62 stays that way for good.

Which spouse files first, and what ends up in your bank account?

Here’s another thing people miss. Before you can claim on your spouse’s record, the working spouse generally needs to file for their own retirement benefit first. Also, if you were born January 2, 1954 or later, that old trick where one spouse claims only a spousal benefit while allowing their own benefit to continue increasing? It’s gone. There’s a provision known as deemed filing (and it applies to everyone), which means the date you apply, you’re considered to be filing for your own benefit and the spousal benefit at the exact same time; and so, you take whichever is greater.

This “greater” part catches almost everyone, so bear with me for just a minute. Social Security doesn’t allow you to combine both checks and stack them on top of each other. If your own retirement benefit comes to $900 a month, and your spousal benefit would be $1200 per month, then you’d take $1200. You wouldn’t take $2100. The SSA puts it plainly: you receive your own benefit first; and when the spousal benefit is greater than that, they add a supplemental payment that brings your benefit up to the spousal level. One check, the greater one; never both combined.

When a divorce won’t block your access

Many people assume a spousal benefit is only available to married couples. If your marriage lasted for at least ten years (even if it ended in divorce), and you’re single and unmarried; you may still be able to claim on your ex-spouse’s record. You also don’t need the consent of your ex-husband. The SSA won’t contact him and inform him that you’re claiming on his record. Also, claiming on an ex-spouse’s record doesn’t reduce the amounts received by either your ex-husband or his new wife.

One more thing in your favor: if you have been divorced for at least two years; you may claim on an ex-spouse’s record even if he hasn’t claimed on his own benefit yet; as long as he’s at least 62 and eligible.

Survivor benefits operate under a separate framework

Once one spouse passes away everything changes. While your spouse is alive, the spousal benefit can’t exceed 50%. We discussed this previously. A survivor benefit can be as large as 100% of what the deceased spouse was collecting at the time of death; whereas unlike the spousal benefit; a survivor benefit does carry forward any delayed retirement credits that the deceased spouse had accumulated. So, it’s possible a higher earning spouse may wish to delay drawing their retirement checks for as long as possible; potentially providing their surviving partner with a larger survivor benefit.

A 2025 law that restored checks for public employees

Before the Social Security Fairness Act of 2025 (signed into law on January 5, 2025); two provisions with somewhat arcane-sounding names – the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP); significantly reduced or completely eliminated Social Security spousal and survivor benefits for many teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public-sector employees whose employers had chosen not to contribute funds towards Social Security. If that describes your situation; you should review whether SSA has contacted you recently about back payments owed due to the elimination of these provisions.

Age limits and the earnings test

Usually, the minimum age requirement to begin receiving a spousal benefit is age 62. There’s one exception; you can begin receiving at any age if you’re caring for the worker’s child who’s under 16, or who became disabled before age 22 and meets certain requirements. So, for example; a woman aged 45 may be eligible to claim a spousal benefit based on her spouse’s record while caring for a child under 16, even though she wouldn’t otherwise meet the age requirement. The child is the key that opens up this possibility.

Also, here’s something to weigh if you’re still working when you claim. Begin receiving your spousal benefit before reaching your FRA, and continue employment; and the retirement earnings test (RET) may withhold some of that benefit amount. In 2026, SSA withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480 if you’re below FRA all year long. The year you reach FRA in 2026, that limit jumps to $65,160, the withholding eases to $1 for every $3 you earn over it, and SSA only counts what you earned before the month you reached FRA.

Fortunately, any monies withheld due to continued employment during this period will be recouped in future years once you reach FRA. Although it still hurts in those years when your check is noticeably smaller due to this withholding; ultimately, you’ll recover all withheld monies.

Something to do before signing any paperwork

With all the moving parts here, the best move for your next-door neighbor could be a bad move for you. So, before filing; please create a my Social Security account at SSA.gov and view your personal numbers; or dial SSA at 1-800-772-1213. Also, if you want a strategy tailored to your whole financial picture rather than this one decision; a fee-only financial planner familiar with Social Security can be worth every dollar you pay them.

Sources

• SSA: Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
• SSA: Benefits for Spouses (actuarial)
• SSA: Delayed Retirement Credits
• SSA: Social Security Fairness Act (WEP and GPO update)
• SSA: Receiving Benefits While Working (earnings test)
• SSA: Who can get Survivor benefits
• SSA: Benefits on a former spouse’s record (FAQ)

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash