A Social Security spousal benefit can pay you up to half of your spouse's full benefit, the amount their record pays at full retirement age, based on their work record instead of your own. That matters most if you earned less than your spouse, or stayed home to raise a family. But two rules decide what you actually collect: you get the higher of your own benefit or the spousal one, not both, and if you turned 62 on or after January 2, 2016, a change in the law means that, outside a few narrow exceptions, you can no longer take just the spousal benefit and switch to your own later. That change left survivor benefits alone, so a widow or widower can still claim a survivor benefit now and let their own retirement benefit keep growing.

Getting this right changes the amount that arrives every month, so it's worth understanding before you file.

In This Guide

How Much Do Social Security Spousal Benefits Pay?

A spousal benefit is based on your spouse's earnings, not yours, which is exactly what makes it a lifeline if you earned less or spent years out of the paid workforce. At your full retirement age, the spousal benefit can be as much as half of your spouse's primary insurance amount, the benefit their record pays at their own full retirement age. So if your husband's full benefit is $2,400 a month, your spousal benefit at your full retirement age could be as much as $1,200, real income when your own record would pay you less.

Claim earlier, and the amount drops. A spousal benefit is reduced for each month you are entitled to it before your own full retirement age. If your full retirement age is 67, claiming the spousal benefit at 62 cuts it by 35 percent, leaving 32.5 percent of your spouse's primary insurance amount instead of 50 percent. Months when you have your spouse's child in your care, and that child is entitled to child's benefits, don't count toward that reduction. And a spousal benefit does not keep growing if you wait past full retirement age, because half of your spouse's primary insurance amount is the ceiling. There's no bonus for delaying a spousal benefit beyond that point.

Can You Get Spousal Benefits and Your Own?

This is the question that trips up the most people, so here it is plainly: you don't collect a full spousal benefit on top of your own retirement benefit. Social Security pays you the higher of the two. If your own benefit is larger, that's what you get. If the spousal benefit is larger, you effectively receive your own benefit plus enough to bring you up to the spousal amount, because the spousal benefit is reduced, but not below zero, by the amount of your own benefit.

The Rule That Changed the Math

For years, some people used a strategy: file a "restricted application" to take just the spousal benefit at full retirement age while letting their own benefit grow to as late as 70, then switch. A 2015 law closed that door for most people.

If you turned 62 on or after January 2, 2016, Social Security treats a claim for either benefit as a claim for both, and pays you the higher of the two. That rule, called deemed filing, means you generally can't take spousal-only now and switch to your own later. It's worth knowing before you file, because the order you once could have chosen no longer exists.

Social Security names three exceptions. Two are narrow: deemed filing does not apply if you receive spouse's benefits and are entitled to disability, or if you receive spousal benefits because you are caring for the retired worker's child. The third reaches far more families, and it is the difference between a good claiming decision and an expensive one. Social Security's own filing rules say: "Deemed filing applies to retirement benefits, not survivor's benefits. If you are a spouse, you may start your survivor benefit independently of your retirement benefit." So a widow of 62 can take the survivor benefit now and leave her own retirement benefit to grow to as late as age 70, then switch to whichever check is larger. Whether waiting pays off depends on the two amounts, but she still gets the choice that a spouse of a living worker lost in 2015. Our guide on Social Security survivor benefits covers that switch in full.

Who Can Claim Social Security Spousal Benefits

If you are still married, there's a requirement people miss: a spousal benefit is payable only to the spouse of a worker who is entitled to their own benefit, so your spouse must have filed for and become entitled to their own retirement or disability benefit before you can start a spousal benefit on their record. If your spouse is delaying their own claim to grow their benefit, your spousal benefit waits until they file. A divorced spouse is the exception: you can be paid on an ex's record before they file, provided they are at least 62, the marriage lasted at least 10 years immediately before the divorce became final, and the divorce has been final for at least two years.

Benefits on an Ex-Spouse's Record

A divorce doesn't necessarily end your claim to spousal benefits. But the 10-year marriage is the first condition, not the whole test, and a woman who meets it can still be turned down on one of the others. All of the following have to be true at once:

  • The marriage lasted at least 10 years: you were validly married to your ex under state law, or deemed validly married, and the marriage lasted at least 10 years immediately before the divorce became final. Social Security's own instructions allow for a break in that period: if a prior divorce interrupted the marriage, the 10 years still count provided you remarried no later than the calendar year after the calendar year of that divorce, and if your last divorce does not give you 10 years, you may still qualify on a 10-year period of marriage immediately before an earlier divorce.
  • You are not currently married: the regulation's condition is "You are not married." If you are married when you apply, you do not meet it. For this test you count as not married throughout the month in which the divorce occurred.
  • You are age 62 or older: you must be 62 or older throughout a month in which all the other conditions of entitlement are met. A 58-year-old whose 20-year marriage clears the 10-year test easily still has to reach 62 before she can be entitled as a divorced spouse.
  • You apply: the regulation lists your application as a condition in its own right. This benefit starts when you file for it.
  • Your own primary insurance amount is below the full spousal benefit: you must not be entitled to an old-age or disability benefit based upon a primary insurance amount that is equal to or larger than the full wife's or husband's benefit.

That last one catches people, because it compares two amounts that are easy to mix up. Your primary insurance amount is what your own earnings record would pay you at your full retirement age. That is the figure Social Security measures against the full spousal benefit, which is half of your ex's primary insurance amount, and it is not the check you actually receive. So a woman who claimed at 62 and took a permanent reduction can be barred by this test even though the money arriving in her account each month is smaller than the spousal benefit would be, because the comparison was never between the two checks.

That not-married condition decides whether you can become entitled in the first place. It does not decide what happens if you remarry once you are already collecting on an ex's record, and a different regulation does. Under 20 CFR 404.332(b)(3), a divorced spouse's benefits end when she marries someone else, unless that other person is someone entitled to benefits as a wife, husband, widow, widower, father, mother, parent or disabled child, and they end if she remarries the insured who is not yet entitled to old-age benefits. So a divorced woman already drawing on her ex-husband's record who marries a widower collecting survivor benefits is inside that exception, and her remarriage does not end the benefit. If you are weighing a remarriage against a benefit you already receive, that is the rule to check, not the one in the list above.

There is one further rule, and its scope is narrower than it usually gets reported. If your ex is already entitled to their own retirement or disability benefit, the conditions above are the whole list. If your ex has not claimed yet, you can still be paid on their record, provided they are at least 62 and you have been divorced from them for at least two years. The two-year rule belongs to that second situation only, so it is not a waiting period that follows every divorce.

Claiming on an ex's record is not a claim against them. The family-maximum regulation says the benefits of a divorced spouse "will not be reduced pursuant to this section," and that the benefits of everyone else entitled on the same record "will be determined under this section as if no such divorced spouse or surviving divorced spouse were entitled to benefits." Social Security puts it in plainer words for readers: "Ex-spouses don't count toward the family maximum." Their agreement is not on the regulation's list of conditions either, which runs from the marriage to your own record and stops there.

How to Claim

You apply for spousal benefits through Social Security, using the application for a spouse's or divorced spouse's benefits. Because the higher-of-the-two math and the deemed-filing rule can change your lifetime total, ask the representative to compare your own benefit and the spousal benefit at different ages before you file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do spousal benefits increase if I wait past full retirement age?

No. A spousal benefit reaches its maximum, half of your spouse's primary insurance amount, at your full retirement age and does not grow beyond it. Your own retirement benefit is different, so if your own benefit might end up larger, waiting on that can still pay off.

Can I collect a spousal benefit and my own at the same time?

Not stacked. Social Security pays you the higher of the two. If you turned 62 on or after January 2, 2016, filing for one is treated as filing for both, apart from narrow exceptions for spouses entitled to disability and spouses caring for the worker's child. That rule covers retirement and spousal benefits only: "Deemed filing applies to retirement benefits, not survivor's benefits," so a widow or widower may start a survivor benefit independently of their own retirement benefit.

Does deemed filing apply to survivor benefits?

No. Social Security's filing rules state: "Deemed filing applies to retirement benefits, not survivor's benefits. If you are a spouse, you may start your survivor benefit independently of your retirement benefit." A widow or widower can therefore claim the survivor benefit now and leave their own retirement benefit to grow to as late as age 70, then switch to whichever is larger. The 2015 law closed that sequence off for most spousal claims; it left it open for survivors.

Can I get spousal benefits from an ex-spouse?

Sometimes, and the 10-year marriage is only the first test. You also have to be unmarried now, be age 62 or older, apply, and not be entitled to a benefit of your own based on a primary insurance amount equal to or larger than the full spousal benefit. That last test compares your own primary insurance amount, the figure your record would pay at full retirement age, against the full spousal benefit, rather than comparing the two checks. The full spousal benefit is half of your ex's primary insurance amount. If your ex has not filed yet, you can still claim on their record once they are 62 and your divorce has been final for at least two years; that two-year rule attaches to that situation only.

Learn More

FinancialWhen to Claim Social SecurityWhen to claim Social Security: the 62 vs. 67 vs. 70 math, how claiming more can affect your Medicaid, a spouse's benefits, and the survivor switch. FinancialSocial Security Survivor BenefitsSocial Security survivor benefits pay 71.5% to 100% of a late spouse's benefit. See how to sequence it with your own benefit to collect the larger check. FinancialDoes Social Security Affect Medicaid?Does Social Security affect Medicaid? Yes, it counts as income for long-term-care Medicaid, so a bigger benefit can breach the cap, and there's a fix. FinancialHow to Pay for Senior CareHow to pay for senior care: what it costs nationally and how Medicaid, Medicare, VA benefits, and private pay each fit. Who qualifies, what's covered, in 2026.

Find personalized help deciding when to claim Social Security spousal benefits at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

Still have questions?

Brevy answers from this guide and every other guide here, and can check what you qualify for.

BC

Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.