Social Safety is among the largest social applications within the U.S., and it frequently pays out advantages to tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals. This system may be complicated with many alternative guidelines and provisions, however there’s one space that could be of specific curiosity to those that concern they qualify for little to no advantages.
Particularly, the federal government permits spouses to say advantages based mostly on the very fact their accomplice qualifies for and claims Social Safety. On this state of affairs, they do not should qualify for Social Safety advantages on their very own. As of April 2025, practically 2 million spouses of retired employees claimed the spousal profit. Here is methods to inform if you happen to qualify.
The way to know if you happen to qualify and for a way a lot
Earlier than you’ll be able to qualify for the spousal profit, your accomplice must be amassing Social Safety already. You need to even be married for no less than one 12 months and no less than 62 years outdated.
There are exceptions across the age requirement. If you take care of the retired employee’s minor youngster (underneath 16 years outdated), or if the kid has a incapacity that entitles them to say advantages underneath your accomplice’s file, you’ll be able to declare earlier than 62.
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Assuming you qualify, the utmost spousal profit you’ll be able to obtain is the same as 50% of your accomplice’s main insurance coverage quantity (PIA). That’s the quantity a retiree is entitled to gather at their full retirement age (FRA), which is 67 for these born in 1960 or later.
Nevertheless, you can’t sometimes acquire that most 50% till you additionally attain FRA. Declare any sooner, and you will note a everlasting discount to your advantages, and the sooner you declare, the larger the discount. For somebody with a FRA of 67, a declare at 62 would internet them simply 32.5% of their accomplice’s PIA as a substitute of fifty%. Solely these caring for a retired employee’s minor or disabled youngster can keep away from the early declare penalty.
Deciding between the spousal profit and your individual retired employee profit
Simply since you qualify for a spousal profit doesn’t imply you need to take it. Nearly all of U.S. households are twin revenue, and chances are you’ll qualify for Social Safety based mostly by yourself work file too.
In such circumstances, the federal government can pay you the upper of the 2 quantities, and also you solely want to use for advantages as soon as, by way of a course of referred to as “deemed submitting.” As an illustration, for example you qualify for $800 per thirty days underneath your individual work file and $1,000 per thirty days by way of spousal advantages. You’d obtain the upper quantity of $1,000.
The typical spousal profit in April was $948 per thirty days, or $11,376 per 12 months, in comparison with practically $2,000 per thirty days for the typical retired employee, or about $24,000 per 12 months.
If you happen to’re divorced, can you continue to qualify?
One apparent query relating to spousal advantages is: What if you happen to’re divorced? The excellent news is that divorced people can nonetheless qualify for the spousal profit, though the necessities change.
First, the wedding will need to have lasted for no less than a decade. In the meantime, if you happen to’ve been divorced for lower than two years, your ex-partner (the first employee) should be amassing advantages already. And eventually, you need to stay single. In any other case, you’d have declare spousal advantages based mostly on the work file of your new accomplice.
