Ask the Expert: Who can collect spousal Social Security benefits?

I’ve heard that a person has to be born before Jan. 1, 1954, to collect a spousal Social Security benefit. Is that true?

No. You must either be at least 62 years old or be caring for a “qualifying” child to collect a Social Security benefit based on your spouse’s work record. (A qualifying child is under 16, or is collecting disability benefits.)

But that’s not all. There are three additional requirements:

1) You’ve been married for at least one year.

2) Your spouse has already applied for Social Security. In other words, you can’t collect a spousal benefit while your husband or wife postpones filing for Social Security in order to maximize their benefit check.

3) Your spousal benefit is bigger than the Social Security benefit you can collect based on your own work record. You can only receive the larger of the two amounts — not both. If your own Social Security benefit is $2,000 a month, for example, and your spousal benefit is $1,800 a month, you’ll get a $2,000 monthly check.

Finally, bear in mind that the size of your spousal benefit depends partly on your age when you file for it. The maximum spousal benefit is 50% of the amount your spouse could collect at his/her full retirement age (FRA). But to collect that much, you must delay your application until you’ve reached your own FRA. If you started collecting your spousal benefit at age 62, you’d receive only 32½% of your spouse’s FRA amount. And that reduction is permanent. Like all Social Security recipients, you’d receive cost-of-living increases. But your spousal benefit would always be smaller than if you’d delayed your application until your FRA.

The bottom line

Being old enough isn’t the only requirement for collecting a spousal Social Security benefit.

More information

bit.ly/socialsecurityretirementbenefits

bit.ly/SSAbenefitsforspouses