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Adam Grossman wrote this in an e-mail today. I didn’t know this did you?
“The spousal benefit is terrific, but a commonly misunderstood limitation is that—unlike a worker’s own benefit—it doesn’t continue to increase each year until age 70. It hits a maximum at the spouse’s FRA. For that reason, it’s important for a spouse to not delay beyond that point.”
On the other hand if the worker delayed beyond FRA those extra benefits pass on to survivors benefits. The survivor only gets 100% of the spouses benefit if claimed at their FRA.
Complicated stuff.
Many people may not know that a spouse you have divorced may claim 50% of your benefits that you could have claimed at full retirement age. He/she can request this from SSA and you will not be notified. You can ask SSA administration if anyone is claiming this benefit but they will not reveal the name or amount.
James Mcglynn wrote a post about this a while back. I remember panicking until I re-read the post and realized they were speaking of the spousal benefit, not the survivor benefit. Add this to the list of things whose logic escapes me.
This is great information that can help someone avoid a very costly mistake.
My wife and I started SS this month. In dollars, her spousal benefit is almost two-thirds of mine.
What’s real dollars?
Better?
Ken, do you mean her benefit based on her earnings record as opposed spousal benefits based off one earners SS benefit?
She did not qualify for SS on her own earnings record as she had less than 40 credits (her 8 years working for the federal government didn’t count). My point was that her spousal benefit, taken at her FRA age, is a substantial percentage of my earned benefit, taken before my FRA.
Got it!
https://humbledollar.com/forum/social-security-spousal-benefits/ I wrote this in March on HD.