Can Both Spouses Collect Social Security?

Like around half of all adults in the U.S., I'm married. My husband and I share a lot of things, like our love of escape rooms, our annoyance when our children whine too much, and our appreciation for good board games.

There are, however, some things I'm not willing to share. Dippin' Dots is one of them. And Social Security checks are another. When we get old, I want my own Social Security check, and I want him to collect his own as well. After all, I plan to enjoy retirement, and two checks are always better than one.

So, the big question is, can both spouses collect Social Security benefits, or will I need to write a sternly worded letter to the government telling them I'm not good at sharing?

Fortunately, the answer is that both spouses absolutely can collect benefits — although there are some very finicky rules you need to know about for some benefit types, which I'll explain below.

Can both spouses collect Social Security?

While the short answer is yes, both spouses can collect Social Security benefits, there's also a longer answer you need to know. That's because there are different kinds of Social Security benefits, including the following.

• Social Security retirement benefits: These are benefits you collect based on your own work history. They equal around 40% of pre-retirement income, and you become eligible for them once you earn at least 40 work credits (which requires you to work at least 10 years).
• Social Security spousal benefits: These are benefits you collect based on your spouse's work history. If you collect spousal benefits, they can total as much as 50% of the primary earner's standard benefit (with the primary earner being your husband or wife).
• Survivor benefits: These are benefits you can collect based on your spouse's work history if your spouse dies. Obviously, if you're collecting them, both spouses can't get benefits because — contrary to some popular myths — Social Security doesn't actually send checks to dead people.

If you collect your own retirement benefits, you can claim them whenever you want, starting at 62. However, if you don't wait until at least your full retirement age (FRA), you permanently shrink your checks. You could also shrink survivor benefits.

If you collect spousal benefits, the rules get a lot wonkier. Let's take a look at the rules for both below.

Claiming your own Social Security benefits

As mentioned above, you can claim your own Social Security benefits whenever you want, starting at 62.

However, your standard benefit (based on average wages over your 35 highest earning years) is only available at full retirement age — which is 67 if you were born in 1960 or later.

For any month that you claim Social Security before your FRA, you reduce your benefits by a small amount, which ends up adding up to a big cut. The early filing penalties add up to a 6.7% reduction for each of the first three years you get benefits ahead of FRA and another 5% per year if you get benefits even sooner. That's a 30% cut for a claim at 62 instead of 67.

It's also worth noting that if you were the higher earner and you claim your benefits before FRA, you also shrink your spouse's survivor benefits. Your spouse would normally get your standard benefit if you die before you claim, but if you claim early, then they only get your reduced benefit.

You can also wait beyond FRA to grow your standard benefit by ⅔ of 1% per month (which adds up to 8% annually). Delayed retirement credits account for this increase, and you can earn them until 70. That's when I plan to claim my benefits, because I want those bigger checks!

Waiting until 70 can also increase your spouse's survivor benefits because, if you die with a benefit that's bigger than your standard one, your spouse gets to keep the larger checks. If you can pull it off (which probably means living on retirement savings for a while until you hit 70), it's a big win for you during your lifetime and your spouse's if they outlive you.

Social Security spousal benefits

Social Security spousal benefits are a whole different ballgame when it comes to the complexity of claiming. Since my husband and I have similar earnings and will each get our own benefits, this isn't a big issue for us, but it is for anyone who has an earnings discrepancy in their marriage.

If you didn't earn your own retirement benefits because you didn't earn enough work credits, or if you didn't make a whole lot of money when you did work, your spousal benefits may be bigger than your own retirement benefits. Spousal benefits can equal up to 50% of your husband or wife's primary benefit.

You can start your spousal benefits at 62, but again, this is considered an early claim, and you'll shrink the checks you get. Waiting until your full retirement age allows you to max out your spousal benefits and get that full 50% of the primary earner's benefit. There's an important caveat, though: You can't earn delayed retirement credits on spousal benefits.

That means, in theory, that there's no reason to claim spousal benefits after your full retirement age. However, you can't get these benefits until the primary earner claims their retirement check. In other words, if you're hoping to claim spousal benefits on your husband's work record, you have to wait until he files for his own benefits first.

You can actually use this to your advantage, though.

• If you qualify for your own Social Security benefit, even if it's pretty low, you can do that first to bring some Social Security income into your house.
• Your higher-earning spouse can wait as long as possible to claim. Then when they claim benefits, you can switch over to spousal benefits. Since you won't have claimed those early, no early filing penalties will apply.

Unfortunately, you can't put off claiming your spousal benefits once you're officially eligible for them. So, if your higher-earning husband claimed his retirement checks, you can't just file and say, "Give me my own retirement benefits and let me wait for the spousal check later."

Deemed filing rules say that when you request benefits, you can't pick and choose — you get the highest one you're eligible for at the time.

Divorced spouse's Social Security benefits

When you hear the term spousal benefits, you probably assume you have to be married to get them. In reality, though, that's not necessarily the case. If you were married for at least 10 years, you've divorced, and you haven't remarried, you're still eligible for spousal benefits on your ex's work history.

The great thing is, if you've been divorced for at least two years, you don't even have to wait for your spouse to claim their retirement benefits to get your spousal benefits. You can claim whenever you're ready after age 62 (of course, with the caveat that your benefit shrinks if it's before your FRA).

This rule saves you from having to coordinate with your ex about when you'll retire, and it also means that if your ex isn't very nice and wants to wait to claim their own checks just to spite you and make you delay, they won't get away with that trick!

FAQs

Bottom line

Getting access to more flexible Social Security benefit options — and potentially to more benefits — is one of the great things about being married. It even makes it worth putting up with a cover-hogging (or Dippin' Dot-stealing) spouse.

Just be sure you have a clear strategy for how you'll structure your benefits claim and work together with your spouse to optimize your combined income because the rules are a lot more confusing when there are two of you collecting. While you're at it, be sure to read up on Social Security taxes and how to avoid them so that you can get the most out of your benefits.

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