Additional Social Security Benefits You May Qualify For

Beyond your own retirement check, the additional Social Security benefits you may qualify for include payments based on a spouse’s or ex-spouse’s record, survivor benefits after a spouse dies, dependent benefits for your children or disabled adult children, delayed retirement credits worth up to 24% more per month if you wait to claim, and needs-based Supplemental Security Income if your resources are limited. If you were previously affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision or Government Pension Offset, you may also be owed restored payments under a 2025 law. Social Security also increased all benefits by 2.8% for 2026, so many of the dollar figures below reflect that adjustment.¹

Spousal Benefits, Including Ex-Spouses

If your spouse receives Social Security retirement or disability benefits, you can collect up to 50% of their primary insurance amount once you reach your own full retirement age.² Full retirement age depends on your birth year, ranging from 66 for people born between 1943 and 1954 up to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.³

You can start spousal benefits as early as 62, but the reduction is steep and permanent. A spouse born in 1960 or later who claims at 62 receives only about 32.5% of the worker’s benefit rather than 50%.⁴

Divorced spouses qualify too, and this is one of the most commonly overlooked benefits in the whole system. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years and you are currently unmarried, you can collect on an ex-spouse’s record.⁵ Your ex does not need to know, does not need to approve it, and it has no effect on what they or their current spouse receives.

Survivor Benefits

When a worker dies, the surviving spouse can receive up to 100% of the deceased worker’s benefit amount, including any delayed retirement credits the worker earned.⁶ The full 100% applies if you wait until your survivor full retirement age, which falls between 66 and 67 depending on birth year.⁷

You can start collecting earlier. Survivor benefits are available at age 60, or age 50 if you have a qualifying disability.⁸ Claiming early permanently reduces your monthly amount, so the choice between more years of payments and a larger check deserves careful thought. Surviving children receive 75% of the deceased parent’s benefit, higher than the 50% they’d get on a living parent’s record.⁷

Remarriage affects survivor eligibility less than people assume. Remarry before age 60 and you generally lose the benefit. Remarry at 60 or later and you keep it.⁹ For disabled surviving spouses, the threshold drops to age 50.⁸ Divorced surviving spouses also qualify, provided the marriage lasted at least 10 years.

Benefits for Children and Other Dependents

When a parent collects Social Security retirement or disability, each qualifying child can receive up to 50% of that parent’s benefit.¹⁰ A child qualifies if they are unmarried and fit one of these categories:

Under age 18. Any minor child qualifies.
Ages 18 to 19 and a full-time student in elementary or secondary school (grade 12 or below). Eligibility ends at graduation or two months after turning 19, whichever comes first.⁵
Any age with a disability that began before age 22. These adults can collect on a parent’s record once the parent starts receiving retirement or disability benefits, or after the parent dies.¹¹

Grandchildren and step-grandchildren can qualify under tighter rules. The child must have been living with the grandparent before age 18, must have received at least half their financial support from the grandparent, and the biological parents generally must be deceased or disabled, or the grandparent must have legally adopted the child.¹²

Total family payments are capped by the family maximum, which runs roughly 150% to 180% of the worker’s primary insurance amount for retirement and disability records.¹⁰ When combined payments to a spouse and children would exceed that cap, the dependents’ shares are reduced proportionally while the worker’s own benefit stays intact. The exact cap uses a formula with dollar-amount bend points that change each year.¹³

Delayed Retirement Credits

If you can afford to wait past your full retirement age to start collecting, your benefit grows by two-thirds of 1% for every month you delay, which works out to 8% per year. The increase stops at age 70.¹⁴ For someone with a full retirement age of 67, waiting until 70 means a permanent 24% boost to every check for life.¹⁵

Delayed credits increase your own retirement benefit only. A living spouse still gets up to 50% of your primary insurance amount, regardless of your credits. Survivor benefits, however, are calculated on your increased amount including the credits.¹⁵ For couples, that makes delaying a strategy: a higher-earning spouse who waits until 70 locks in a larger survivor check for the lower-earning spouse if the higher earner dies first.

Voluntary Suspension After You’ve Already Claimed

You don’t have to delay from the start to earn these credits. If you’ve already begun collecting and you’ve reached full retirement age, you can pause your benefit payments.¹⁶ During the pause, you earn the same 8% annual increase plus any cost-of-living adjustments. Payments restart automatically at 70, or sooner if you request it. Two things to know: family members receiving benefits on your record also stop being paid while your benefits are suspended, and anyone enrolled in Medicare has to pay those premiums separately.

Supplemental Security Income

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a separate, needs-based program for people aged 65 or older, blind, or living with a disability who have very little income and few assets.¹⁷ Unlike retirement benefits, SSI is funded from general tax revenue rather than payroll taxes, and qualification depends entirely on financial need. You can receive SSI in addition to a small Social Security retirement or disability check if your total income and resources stay under the limits.

To qualify, your countable resources cannot exceed $2,000 as an individual or $3,000 as a couple.¹⁸ Countable resources include cash, bank accounts, stocks, and most property you could convert to cash. Your home and one vehicle used for transportation are excluded.¹⁹ You must also report all income, including wages, pensions, and non-cash support like free food or shelter, because SSI reduces your payment above certain thresholds.

For 2026, the maximum federal SSI payment is $994 per month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple.²⁰ Most states add a supplement on top of the federal amount. Only Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and the Northern Mariana Islands provide no state supplement.²¹ In some states the supplement is paid automatically with your federal check; in others you apply separately through the state agency.

If you’re a student under 22 receiving SSI, the student earned income exclusion lets you earn up to $2,410 per month and up to $9,730 for the year in 2026 without reducing your SSI payment.²²

Restored Benefits Under the Social Security Fairness Act

For decades, two provisions cut benefits for people who earned a pension from work not covered by Social Security, including many teachers, firefighters, police officers, and certain government employees. The Windfall Elimination Provision reduced retirement benefits, and the Government Pension Offset reduced spousal and survivor benefits. Both are now gone. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, eliminated both rules retroactive to January 2024.²³

If you were affected, Social Security is issuing one-time lump-sum payments covering the benefit increase back to January 2024, deposited into the bank account on file. The change applies to benefits on your own record as well as spousal and survivor benefits on someone else’s record.²³ If you previously skipped applying for spousal or survivor benefits because the offset would have wiped them out, apply now.

How to Apply

Applying for any of these benefits requires documentation of identity, relationship, and financial situation. Gather these before you start:

Identity and citizenship documents. Original birth certificate, Social Security numbers for all household members, and proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency.
Relationship proof. Marriage certificate for spousal benefits, final divorce decree for ex-spouse claims, or death certificate for survivor benefits.
Income and work history. W-2 forms or self-employment tax returns from the previous year.
Medical evidence, for disability claims only. Records from treating physicians, a list of medications, and contact information for healthcare providers.

Retirement applications use Form SSA-1-BK, and disability claims use Form SSA-16. Both are available free at ssa.gov.²⁴ You can submit online through your my Social Security account or schedule an appointment at a local field office. If you mail original documents such as a birth certificate, use certified mail with a return receipt. Social Security returns originals after scanning them, but tracking protects you in transit.

Processing times vary by benefit. Retirement claims tend to move quickly; disability applications involve a medical review that can take months. If your application is denied, the notice will include instructions for appealing, which you must file within 60 days of receiving it.²⁵ The first-level appeal, called a request for reconsideration, is worth filing in almost every case, and approval rates climb at later stages, particularly at a hearing before an administrative law judge.

1
Social Security Administration. Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026
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Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
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Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction
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Social Security Administration. Benefit Reduction for Early Retirement
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Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits
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Social Security Administration. Social Security Handbook 407 – Amount of Widower’s Insurance Benefit
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Social Security Administration. What You Could Get from Survivor Benefits
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Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
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Social Security Administration. Will Remarrying Affect My Social Security Benefits
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Social Security Administration. Benefits for Children
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Social Security Administration. Benefits For Children With Disabilities
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Social Security Administration. Parents and Guardians
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Social Security Administration. Formula for Family Maximum Benefit
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Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits
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Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.313 – What Are Delayed Retirement Credits and How Do They Increase My Old-Age Benefit Amount
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Social Security Administration. Pause Your Retirement Benefit
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S.C. Chapter 7 – Social Security – Section 1381 Statement of Purpose
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Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income SSI Resources
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Social Security Administration. SSI Spotlight on Resources
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Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts for 2026
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Social Security Administration. How Can I Get State Supplementary Payments for Supplemental Security Income
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Social Security Administration. Student Earned Income Exclusion for SSI
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Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act – Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO)
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Social Security Administration. Social Security Forms
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Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Appeals Process