If You’re Married, How Much
Social Security Will You Get?
By Shane Flait © 2008
How much
social security income can you
expect as a married couple?
Actually, in that case, you
get the better of two options.
Each person – married or not -
is entitled to his or her social
security benefit according to
his or her own earnings. In the
case of marriage, you’ll receive
the higher of what you are
entitled to on your own earnings
or what you are entitled to
simply for being the spouse of
your marriage partner – i.e.
‘the spousal entitlement’.
Spousal entitlement
As a spouse - whether you’ve
ever worked or not - you’re
entitled to up to 50% of the
social security income benefit
of your spouse. We’ll look at
the conditions on this below.
But realize that the benefits
you –as a spouse receive – do
not reduce the benefits that
your spouse is entitled to
receive on his own. That means
your family income (i.e. from
both you and your spouse) from
social security will be the
greater of:
·
as high as 150% of your spouse’s
benefits (depending on when you
begin –see below) or
·
the sum of the benefits that
each of you are entitled to
based on your own individual
earnings.
Your Primary Insurance Amount at
your Full Retirement Age
The amount of social security
income anyone will receive -
based on his or her own social
security earnings history – is
related to the ‘primary
insurance amount’ (PIA). The PIA
is your social security benefit
you would receive at your full
retirement age (FRA). The FRA
increases according to your
birth year – see table.
|
Birth
Year |
FRA |
|
1937 or
earlier |
65 |
|
1938 |
65 and 2
months |
|
1939 |
65 and 4
months |
|
1940 |
65 and 6
months |
|
1941 |
65 and 8
months |
|
1942 |
65 and
10
months |
|
1943-1954 |
66 |
Anyone can choose to receive his
own earned benefits at 62 years
of age but they’ll be
permanently reduced from his PIA
he would receive if he retired
at his FRA. If he delays taking
social security benefits until
after his FRA, then his monthly
benefits will be increased above
his PIA.
Now back to the spousal
entitlement
For clarity, we’ll assume that
the higher earner is the husband
who has the higher PIA. Three
conditions are necessary for his
wife’s ‘spousal entitlement’are:
1.
They must have been
married for 10 years for the
wife –as spouse- to be eligible
for the ‘spousal entitlement’ of
her husband’s (or ex-husband’s)
social security benefit.
2.
She must be at least 62
years old, and
3.
She can receive her
spousal entitlement only when
husband files for his social
security benefit.
At her FRA she will receive
50% of her husband’s PIA for his
FRA unless she begins collecting
before her own FRA. Based on 65
years for her FRA, she’d receive
only about 46% at 64, 42% at 63,
and 37.5% at 62.
But remember!
She’ll receive the greater of
whatever ‘the spousal
entitlement’ is or her own
earned social security benefits.
Shane Flait is a writer and
educator. See more at
www.EasyRetirementKnowHow.com
