Can your spouse collect on your social security if she reaches retirement age before you do? No. In order for a wife to collect Social Security benefits on her husband's earnings the following requirements will have to be met:
1. The wife needs to be at least age 62
2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, therefore he should also be at least age 62. Additionally, the husband is required to actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to collect based on his earnings. The husband can then elect to delay receiving benefits. This strategy is known as "file and suspend".
To provide an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 58, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own income, but she cannot receive benefits based on her husband's income until he turns 62 and applies for benefits.
On the other hand, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is only 62, then the wife can begin receiving based on her husband's earnings (again the husband will have to sign up for his benefits before his wife will be able to collect based upon his earnings).
In both illustrations mentioned above, the wife can begin receiving benefits calculated on her own earnings as soon as she turns age 62 (assuming she's got at least 40 quarters and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can change over to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit as soon as her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.
A number of points you should consider before applying for benefits:
If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's earnings when she attains full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll collect 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts collecting benefits at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.
It does not help the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits will not include delayed credits. On top of that, it doesn't help the wife if the husband delays applying for benefits because she will not get any rise in benefits that he gets by waiting to apply.
Where a spouse gets to full retirement age and is eligible for a spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting the spousal benefit now and postpone collecting her own benefit in order to build up delayed credits on her own benefit.
An individual can collect Social Security spousal benefits calculated on an ex-spouse's earnings as long as you were married for a minimum of 10 years and you are also presently unmarried. In case you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the requirements pertaining to spousal benefits, you will receive the maximum benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse doesn't need to wait for a former husband to start receiving benefits as long as the pair has been divorced for at least two years when she applies.
Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so even though this article has assumed that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more money than her husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.
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