Don't Forget About The Social Security Spousal Benefit
Can a non-working wife receive Social Security retirement benefits determined by her husband's earnings? Yes, a spouse can collect a Social Security spousal benefit if the following requirements are met:
1. The wife is required to be at least age 62
2. The husband will need to be eligible for benefits, hence he should also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband has to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his income. The husband may then choose to postpone receiving benefits. This strategy is called "file and suspend".
To give you an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her income, but she can not collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts collecting his own benefits.
Having said that, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is only 62, then the wife can start collecting as determined by her husband's earnings (remember, the husband will need to apply for his Social Security benefits before his wife can collect based on his income).
In both cases shown above, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings as early as age 62 (assuming she has at a minimum 40 quarters of earnings and also qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to one half of her husband's benefit as soon as her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
Several areas to take into account before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she attains full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she will receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts receiving benefits at age 62, then 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 don't include delayed credits. In addition, it will not help the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she won't receive any boost in benefits that he gets by waiting to apply.
When a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes eligible for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start receiving the spousal benefit now and delay receiving her own benefit in order to build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income as long as you were married for not less than ten years and you are at this time unmarried. In case you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you'll receive the largest benefit you are entitled to. 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 not less than 2 yrs when she applies.
As a final point, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so despite the fact that 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 apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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