survivor benefit

Q&A: Will Taking Social Security at 62 Affect Your Spousal or Survivor Benefit?

June 22, 2026 By Liz Weston Leave a Comment

Dear Liz: I am a teacher, retiring this June. I have my teacher’s pension and will receive a small Social Security benefit as well. I am married and my husband’s Social Security benefits are far greater than mine. Should I start drawing on my Social Security benefits next year when I turn 62, assuming when my husband starts drawing on his when he turns 70 in seven years I will then get a higher benefit? Is there any downside to taking my Social Security benefits for seven years while I wait for him to start taking his?

Answer: Your early start would reduce the future spousal benefit you’ll be eligible for when your husband applies at age 70, says Mary Beth Franklin, a former Investment News columnist and author of “Maximizing Social Security Benefits.” The early start would not, however, reduce your future survivor benefit should your husband die first.

Spousal and survivor benefits are both based on your husband’s work record, but they’re calculated using different rules.

Spousal benefits can be up to 50% of your husband’s benefit at his full retirement age. If you’re already receiving your own benefit, the spousal “top off” adds an additional amount to your check once your husband applies and you’re eligible for a spousal benefit. The top off amount is calculated by subtracting your benefit at full retirement age (FRA) from 50% of your husband’s benefit at full retirement age.

A simplified example may help show the effect of an early start. Let’s suppose your own retirement benefit would be $1,000 a month at age 67 and your husband’s benefit at his full retirement age would be $3,000. Social Security subtracts your FRA benefit ($1,000) from half of his ($1,500) to determine the “top off” amount ($500). If you apply for your own unreduced benefit at age 67, the top off amount would be added once your husband applies for his benefit and triggers a spousal benefit for you.

If you start early, on the other hand, your own benefit would be permanently reduced. Starting at 62 means you’d receive $700 a month. Once your husband applies and the spousal benefit is triggered, you’d get the additional $500, but now you’d be receiving $1,200 a month instead of $1,500 you would get if you’d waited.

That doesn’t mean you should delay, Franklin notes. The additional cash could make it easier for your husband to put off filing. And, as noted above, an early start on your own benefit wouldn’t affect any future survivor benefit.

While spousal benefits are based on your husband’s benefit at full retirement age, survivor benefits are based on what he actually receives (or what he had earned, if he dies before starting benefits). If your husband waits to file until after his full retirement age, his benefit earns 8% annual delayed retirement credits until his benefit maxes out at age 70. As a survivor, you would be eligible to receive up to 100% of that benefit.

Q&A: Could spouse’s early start stunt Social Security survivor benefit?

February 23, 2026 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My husband and I plan to delay taking Social Security retirement benefits until the higher-earning spouse is 70. This is to ensure the highest possible survivor benefit. However, the lower-earning spouse will be turning 62 at the same time that the higher earning spouse turns 70. We are concerned that the lower-earning spouse’s future survivor benefit will be reduced if the lower earner starts benefits early. When would be the best time for the lower-earning spouse to take retirement benefits and ensure that the survivor’s benefit remains the same?

Answer: The lower earner won’t reduce the survivor benefit by starting early, but they will permanently reduce their own benefit or any spousal benefit they’re owed. Most people are better off waiting at least until their full retirement age to start Social Security benefits so they can avoid this reduction.

Q&A: How should I receive Social Security survivor benefits?

November 10, 2025 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: I am 68 and still working. I plan to wait until age 70 to maximize my benefit before taking Social Security. My spouse (born in 1956) passed away in 2018 after just beginning to draw her Social Security benefits at age 62.

Even though I was the higher earner, I believe that I can draw survivor benefits now from my wife’s Social Security if I apply. I also believe that I can switch to my own benefit when I turn 70, and my benefit would then be higher.

But I cannot find an answer to whether, if I did such a switch at age 70, my benefits would be at maximum because I waited until age 70, or would be less than the maximum because I started taking my wife’s survivor benefits or even worse, because my wife started benefits early. I see many articles that dance all around this question but never answer it. Can you please be the one who answers this question?

Answer: Social Security can be incredibly complex, with different rules applying depending on age, marital status and the type of benefit involved. Survivor benefits have different rules than spousal benefits, for example, and both work differently from the retirement benefit people earn on their own work record. You’re smart to want to understand exactly how the rules affect your individual situation before applying.

You are correct that you can apply for survivor benefits now and then switch to your own retirement benefit when it maxes out at age 70. Your retirement benefit will not be reduced because you collected survivor benefits first, or because your wife started her benefit early.

However, your survivor’s benefit will be smaller than it might have been because of her early start. The survivor benefit is determined by what the deceased spouse was receiving at the time of death.

Survivor benefits can begin as early as age 60, or 50 if the survivor is disabled, or at any age if the survivor cares for minor or disabled children from the marriage.

But starting early would have further reduced your benefit, plus you would have been subject to the earnings test, which withholds $1 for every $2 you earn over a certain limit (which in 2025 is $23,400). The earnings test goes away when you reach full retirement age, which for someone born in 1957 is 66 years and 6 months.

There was no benefit to delaying your application past your full retirement age. That means you’ve missed out on several months of survivor benefits you could have been receiving. You can get six months of back benefits when you apply, but that’s the limit.