Ask Liz Weston

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spousal benefits

Q&A: Don’t confuse Social Security’s spousal and survivor benefits

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Dear Liz: I waited until 70 to start taking Social Security. My wife, who is the lower earner, took a spousal benefit at her full retirement age. I know she is entitled to my benefit when I pass. However, I understand she does not get my current benefit but the amount I would have received if I had started Social Security at my full retirement age. How do I find that amount?

Answer: You don’t need to. Your wife’s current spousal benefit was based on the amount you would have received at full retirement age. Her survivor benefit — the one she would get if you die first — will be 100% of your current benefit. Because you waited and maximized your own benefit, you also maximized the survivor benefit she may have to live on in the years to come.

Many people confuse the rules for spousal and survivor benefits. Even though they’re based on the same thing — the earnings record of the higher or “primary” earner, which is you — they have different rules for how they’re calculated.

Q&A: Taking half your spouse’s Social Security payment can be better than taking your own.

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Dear Liz: My bookkeeper cousin told me I could get half my husband’s Social Security instead of my own. I took Social Security at 66, when my benefit was $1,300. My husband waited until 70, when his was $3,295. Does that mean I could be getting a monthly check for $1,600?

Answer: Probably not. Spousal benefits can be up to 50% of the benefit your husband had earned as of his full retirement age, not the amount he claimed at age 70. You can check with Social Security, but your own benefit is likely more than your spousal benefit would have been.

Q&A: Is it only the bread winners who get Social Security?

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Dear Liz: How is it that elderly people who have never contributed to Social Security can collect a check? My wife’s grandmother was getting more than $1,000 a month.

Answer: Spousal and survivor benefits are nearly as old as the Social Security program itself.

Social Security was signed into law in 1935. Initially, benefits were only for retired workers. In 1939, benefits were added for wives, widows and dependent children. Later changes added spousal and survivor benefits for men as well as disability benefits.

Social Security isn’t a retirement fund where workers deposit funds into individual accounts. Instead, it’s a social insurance program designed to provide income to retirees, workers who become disabled and the families of workers who die. Benefits are paid using taxes collected from current workers. Like other insurance, the system is designed to protect people against significant economic risks, such as outliving your savings, losing your ability to earn income or losing a breadwinner.

In other words, your wife’s grandmother may not have paid into the system, but her spouse or ex-spouse did, and that provided her with a small source of income.

Q&A: An ex-husband is delaying his Social Security benefits. Must she wait, too?

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Dear Liz: I read your column about divorced spousal benefits for Social Security. I was divorced as of Jan. 1. My ex-husband will be 65 next year and wants to delay benefits until he’s 67. Must I wait to get spousal benefits until then because of his decision? I also will be 65 next year. We were married 36 years.

Answer: If you were still married, you would have to wait until your husband applied for Social Security before you would be eligible for spousal benefits. Since you’re divorced, you only have to wait until he qualifies to file for retirement benefits to file. (He qualified when he turned 62.)

That doesn’t mean you should rush to file, however. Starting benefits before your own full retirement age means accepting a permanently reduced check. Your benefit also would be subject to the earnings test, which withholds $1 of your benefit for every $2 you earn over a certain limit, which in 2024 is $22,320.

Waiting until full retirement age means both the reduction and the earnings test would disappear. If you were born in 1960, your full retirement age is 67.

Q&A: Clearing up the deal with Social Security survivor benefits

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Dear Liz: I read your column regarding the wife who filed for her Social Security benefits at 62 and received $1,500, while her husband filed at 70 and was receiving $4,600. You noted that after the husband died she could receive his entire $4,600 payment, but wouldn’t the amount she receives as a survivor’s benefit be reduced due to her early filing?

Answer: That’s not true. An early start reduces retirement and spousal benefits. Survivor benefits operate by different rules.

A survivor benefit can be up to 100% of what the deceased spouse received or had earned. If the husband had filed for his own benefit earlier, for example, that would reduce the survivor benefit the wife could receive. Survivor benefits also can be reduced if the survivor starts receiving them before reaching his or her own full retirement age for such benefits.

But the wife’s early start on her own benefit doesn’t affect the survivor benefit she could get if he dies first.

Q&A: How late-in-life divorce could affect Social Security benefits

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Dear Liz: I’m a CPA and getting conflicting answers from the Social Security office about a case I’m working on. Both clients are 70 and they’re considering legal separation or divorce. She took Social Security at 62 and receives about $1,500 a month before deductions. He started Social Security at 70 and receives about $4,600. How would her Social Security change at his death or their divorce, if she doesn’t remarry?

Answer: Based on the amounts involved, both parties are receiving their own retirement benefits and those aren’t affected by divorce, said William Reichenstein, a principal at Social Security Solutions, a claiming strategy site. (If the wife were receiving spousal benefits, those would continue after divorce as long as the marriage lasted at least 10 years and she did not remarry.)

If the husband dies and they haven’t divorced, the wife would be entitled to survivor benefits equal to his full monthly benefit amount ($4,600, plus any future cost of living increases). If they divorce and the marriage lasted at least 10 years, she also would be entitled to his full amount. Remarriage wouldn’t affect her divorced survivor benefit since she’s over 60, Reichenstein said.