Key Points

• Social Security spousal benefits can be a big source of retirement income.

• The rules of spousal benefits are often misunderstood.

• It’s important to know when you’re eligible for spousal benefits and when to file for them.

• The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook ›

To qualify for Social Security in retirement, you often have to accumulate 40 work credits in your lifetime, which you do by earning money and paying taxes on your wages. But that’s not the only way to become eligible for Social Security.

Even if you never worked, you may be eligible for Social Security spousal benefits. But the rules of spousal benefits are complex, and it’s easy enough to get confused about how this aspect of Social Security works. Here are three misconceptions about spousal benefits it pays to get to the bottom of.

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1. You can’t claim spousal benefits if you’re entitled to Social Security yourself

You might assume that if you worked and are eligible for Social Security based on your own wage history, then spousal benefits are off the table. But that’s not necessarily true.

Social Security won’t pay you a monthly spousal benefit plus your own benefit. That’s double-dipping and not allowed. What Social Security will do, however, is pay you the larger of your own benefit or a spousal benefit.

So let’s say you’re eligible for $1,500 a month in Social Security based on your earnings record. If your spouse is entitled to $2,800 a month at full retirement age, you won’t get a spousal benefit.

The reason? Spousal benefits max out at 50% of your spouse’s monthly check at the spouse’s full retirement age. In this example, your $1,500 benefit is larger than the $1,400 you’d get in spousal benefits, so those wouldn’t apply to you. But if your spouse is entitled to a $3,200 monthly benefit, you’d potentially be able to get $1,600 a month from Social Security in spousal benefits.

2. It pays to delay your spousal benefit claim for larger checks

It may be that you never worked and are relying on Social Security spousal benefits for income. You may have heard that delaying Social Security results in larger monthly benefits. But that only holds true for benefits you’re claiming based on your own earnings record.

If you’re entitled to Social Security on your own, each year you delay your claim past full retirement age boosts your monthly benefits by 8%, up until age 70. But the maximum spousal benefit you can get is 50% of what your spouse gets at full retirement age. There’s no sense in delaying a spousal benefit claim past your own full retirement age.

3. Your spousal benefit and survivor benefit will be the same amount

If you’re not eligible for Social Security on your own, you might assume that the largest monthly benefit you’ll ever get is 50% of your spouse’s benefit. But if you end up outliving your spouse, you could end up getting more Social Security.

Once your spouse passes away, you’ll be eligible for survivor benefits instead of spousal benefits. You won’t get both at the same time, since Social Security pays only one set of benefits per recipient. But you should know that survivor benefits are worth up to 100% of your spouse’s benefit, not 50%.

So in this example, say you’re getting a $1,600 monthly spousal benefit from Social Security and your spouse passes away. At that point, you’d be bumped up to $3,200, provided you’ve reached full retirement age.

There’s a lot to know about Social Security spousal benefits, so if you expect them to become an income source, it pays to read up on how they work. Understanding spousal benefits could help you better plan for retirement and avoid some of the financial uncertainty so many older people face.

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