Ask the Expert: Can younger wife apply for spousal benefits at 61?
You write about Social Security scenarios where the husband is usually the higher earner. I'm five years younger than my husband, and I was the higher wage earner. If he applies for Social Security at 66, can I apply for a spousal benefit? And when I reach age 70, can I switch to my own full benefit?
Unfortunately, it sounds as if the answer is no — not because you're a higher-earning wife, but because the option you describe is unavailable to people born after Jan. 1, 1954.
Social Security rules apply equally to both spouses, regardless of who earned more. But the most generous options are available only to people who don't apply for Social Security until their full retirement age. This produces the optimal outcome when the older spouse -- typically the husband -- earned more.
You must be at least 62 to apply for Social Security retirement benefits, whether it's the spousal benefit or your own; and you can't apply for a spousal benefit until your spouse applies for Social Security. (Note: Different rules govern Social Security survivor benefits.)
But you must meet two additional requirements to file the restricted application you describe -- i.e., an application for your spousal benefit alone, reserving your own for later.
1) You must be at your full retirement age. (If you're younger, you're deemed to be applying for all the benefits to which you're entitled, and you receive an amount equal to the largest of them.)
2) You cannot have been born after Jan. 1, 1954. The restricted application isn't an option for younger people. If you're five years younger than your husband, and he isn't yet 66, you don't make that cutoff.
The bottom line
The most generous Social Security options are only available to older applicants.
