When can a spouse start collecting his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only after the following conditions have been satisfied:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit is required to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, hence he must also be at least age 62. Furthermore, the husband must actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his income. The husband can then elect to postpone collecting benefits. This strategy is referred to as "file and suspend".

To provide you with an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 61, the wife can begin collecting benefits calculated on her earnings, but she can't collect based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.

However, if the wife is age 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's income (remember, the husband must sign up for his Social Security benefits before the wife can collect based on his income).

In the instances above, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her own earnings at age 62 (assuming she has not less than forty quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to one half of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

A couple of points to contemplate before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's income when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for individuals retiring now), then she will receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she applies for her spousal benefit at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. Furthermore, it won't benefit the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not get any boost in benefits that he receives by waiting to collect benefits.

If a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to receive the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and postpone receiving her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.

You can collect Social Security spousal benefits determined by an ex-spouse's income if you were married for not less than 10 years and you are also at this time unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you qualify regarding spousal benefits, you'll get the largest benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse does not have to wait for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the couple is divorced for not less than 2 yrs when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so despite the fact that this article assumes that the wife is usually the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife earns more than the husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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