The Retirement Mistake Divorced Women Make More Than Any Other Group

More than four in 10 Americans nearing retirement age don't know that divorced people can collect Social Security benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings record, according to the 2024 edition of MassMutual's annual Social Security knowledge survey. 

That knowledge gap hits divorced women hardest. Women are more likely to have lower lifetime earnings, career gaps from caregiving, or both. This could leave them with a smaller benefit on their own record at exactly the moment they can least afford it.

For divorced women without a pension or a fully funded retirement plan, this overlooked benefit can be the difference between a tight retirement and a stable one. The good news is that the benefit is real, the rules are clear, and claiming it has no effect on your ex whatsoever. Here's what you need to know.

What the divorced spouse benefit actually is

If you were married for at least 10 years, you may be entitled to a Social Security benefit based on your ex-spouse's earnings history — regardless of whether your ex has remarried, and without reducing his benefit by a single dollar. 

The Social Security Administration treats this as an entirely separate entitlement. Your claim has no effect on what your ex receives, and he will not be notified that you filed.

The maximum benefit available

The maximum benefit available is 50% of your ex-spouse's full retirement age benefit, known as his Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). 

You receive this full 50% only if you claim at your own full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claiming before full retirement age reduces the amount. At 62, the earliest you can claim, the benefit drops to 32.5% of your ex's PIA.

The requirements to be eligible

In order to be eligible to collect an ex-spouse's Social Security benefits, you must meet these criteria:

• You were married for at least 10 years.
• You are currently unmarried (remarriage after age 60 following a spouse's death has different rules, but remarriage while your ex is living ends eligibility).
• You are at least 62 years old.
• Your ex-spouse is eligible for Social Security benefits (they don't need to have filed yet, as long as you have been divorced for at least two years).
• If you qualify for benefits on your own record, Social Security will pay that first and then supplement it if the divorced spouse benefit is higher.

Delaying past full retirement

There's an important difference between a divorced spouse benefit and your own retirement benefit worth understanding clearly: delaying past your full retirement age does not increase the divorced spouse benefit. 

With your own retirement benefit, every year you wait past full retirement age adds roughly 8% permanently. The divorced spouse benefit doesn't work that way. It maxes out at full retirement age. 

Waiting beyond 67 to claim on your ex's record adds nothing, so there's no financial reason to delay past FRA if you plan to claim this benefit.

The fear factor that keeps women from filing

Even among divorced women who know the benefit exists, fear may keep many from claiming it. One fear is the belief that the ex-spouse will be notified. He won't be. The Social Security Administration does not contact your ex when you file for a divorced spouse benefit. Your claim is between you and the SSA.

Another fear is the belief that your claim will reduce his benefit. It won't. Your ex's monthly payment is not affected in any way by whether you claim on his record. 

The benefit you receive is paid entirely by the Social Security trust fund, not subtracted from his check. Multiple divorced spouses can claim on the same earnings record simultaneously without any of their benefits affecting the others.

These misconceptions have real financial consequences. A woman who qualifies for a divorced spouse benefit of $1,200 per month but never claims it loses more than $14,000 per year in income she was legally entitled to receive.

How the benefit interacts with your own record

The Social Security Administration applies deemed filing rules to divorced spousal benefits, which means you cannot collect your own retirement benefit and a divorced spouse benefit simultaneously as two separate streams. When you apply, the SSA will calculate both your own benefit and the divorced spouse benefit and pay you whichever is higher.

For a woman with a limited earnings history, this often works in her favor. If her own benefit at full retirement age would be $900 per month, but 50% of her ex's PIA is $1,400, she receives $1,400. She doesn't receive both, but she receives the higher of the two.

One important nuance: if you are entitled to your own retirement benefit, you cannot delay that benefit while simultaneously collecting the divorced spouse benefit to earn delayed retirement credits. Deemed filing captures both at once. If you're considering a strategy that involves delaying your own benefit to maximize it, get professional advice before filing for anything.

If your ex-spouse has died, the survivor benefit is even larger

If your ex-spouse is deceased and you were married for at least 10 years, the benefit available to you increases significantly. 

A divorced survivor benefit can be as high as 100% of your ex's benefit, compared with the 50% maximum available when he is living. The same remarriage rules apply — but if you remarried after age 60, you generally remain eligible for the survivor benefit.

Why this matters more than ever

Gray divorce — the term for divorce among adults 50 and older — has become far more common. The divorce rate among adults 65 and older has roughly tripled since 1990, according to the Pew Research Center and multiple academic studies. 

More than one-third of all U.S. divorces now involve someone over 50. That means millions of women are entering retirement carrying the financial consequences of a late-life divorce, including reduced savings, reduced Social Security accrual, and often no pension.

For these women, the divorced spouse benefit is one of the few retirement income sources that doesn't require additional savings, investment returns, or continued work. It's a benefit already embedded in the system, already paid for through the earnings record of a marriage that lasted a decade or more. The only thing required to receive it is knowing it exists and filing correctly.

Bottom line

If you are divorced, were married for at least 10 years, and haven't remarried, start by pulling up your Social Security statement at ssa.gov. Create or log into your My Social Security account to see your projected senior benefit based on your own earnings record. 

If you don't have your ex's current benefit amount, the SSA can tell you what you're entitled to when you contact them directly. You don't need to know his specific benefit to initiate the inquiry.

The benefit is there. It won't reduce what your ex receives. He won't be notified. The only person who loses when a divorced woman doesn't claim it is her.

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