Dear Liz: I will be turning 64 next year and my wife will be turning 62. I plan to wait as long as I can to file for my Social Security, hopefully till 70. My benefit at full retirement age (age 67) is around $3,400 monthly and my wife’s is about $1,100. Half of my benefit will always be higher than hers, even if she waits until age 70 to file. Can she file for early benefits next year (around $800 a month), then switch over to half of mine when I finally file? Will the ‘deeming’ rule affect this? Will she actually get half of mine if she files early?
Answer: If you had already started receiving your benefits, your wife would be “deemed” to be applying for both her own benefit and her spousal benefit and would be given the larger of the two. She couldn’t apply for just one, and there would be no switching later.
Because you haven’t started yet, though, the spousal benefit hasn’t been triggered. The only benefit she can currently apply for is her own. When you apply, the spousal benefit will become available and she will be switched to that if it’s larger (which sounds like it will be the case).
Spousal benefits can be up to half of what the primary earner would get at full retirement age, but the amount is reduced when started early. If you apply for benefits before she reaches full retirement age, in other words, her spousal benefit would be less than 50%.
Plus, any benefit started before the applicant’s full retirement age is subject to the earnings test, as described above.
Because so many different factors are at play, it could make sense to use one of the paid Social Security claiming strategy sites such as Social Security Solutions or Maximize My Social Security.