Within all of the types of benefits that we find in United States Social Security retirement checks there are many different kinds. And each of those classes is for a specific group of beneficiaries. For that reason, knowing the rules about our group’s maximum check is important.
When it comes to Social Security benefits per retired partner, there are several rules to keep in mind. Ideally, both citizens of a couple should have a similar benefit. But in order to do so, they should have identical work history, as well as equal salary and retirement age.
But since that is practically impossible and one of the citizens has always worked more than the other, the usual thing is to try to squeeze as much as possible the possibility of applying for the couple’s retirement check.
In most cases, the Social Security for spouse is usually not too big, but there are possibilities to extend this benefit. Even so, before that we must know the requirements and characteristics of this payment.
REQUIREMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL SECURITY FOR SPOUSES
The first thing we must take into account is that the spouse must be at least 62 years old. Likewise, it is also mandatory to have been married for at least one year. In that case, one of you must be collecting Social Security and your spouse can apply for the monthly payment.
There is a special situation. If we are already collecting a Social Security benefit, we may apply for the spouse’s benefit as well. In this case, we would collect the higher check and no longer be entitled to the lower one. We would not be able to collect both, but the most convenient of them.
Before reaching Full Retirement Age we can request check, yes, but we would not get a very large payment. At age 62, which is the minimum age, we would get 32.5% of the benefit our spouse gets from Social Security.
To get the maximum in this section we need to wait until Full Retirement Age, which ranges from age 66 to 67, depending on when we were born. Then we would get 50% of this benefit.
Even so, there is a step further for the more patient spouses. If we wait until age 70 we will get an extra and not only 50%, but a little bit more, depending on one’s situation. So it’s a good idea to wait a few more years to get a larger Social Security benefit if we don’t need the money.
As for the primary Social Security retiree, it is good to keep in mind that none of this affects him or her. Whether the spouse gets 50%, 32% or a little more, the retiree will get the same every month.
Both beneficiaries, spouse and principal, will be affected by the COLA every year. So the next increase will also come to retirees who have this benefit even if it is not Social Security directly.
Ultimately, the best advice to be able to get the higher benefit is to figure out if our Social Security check is larger than the one we would request as a spouse. Then we can apply for both and we will always get the larger one.