Yes, you can draw Social Security from your husband’s work record if you meet the age and marriage-length rules. As a current spouse you can receive up to 50 percent of his full retirement benefit, and as a widow up to 100 percent. What you actually get depends on your situation, his filing status, and when you claim.
Eligibility While Your Husband Is Living
Three things have to line up. Your marriage must have lasted at least one continuous year.1eCFR. 20 CFR 404.330 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits2Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits3Social Security Administration. How Does Someone Become Eligible And your husband must already be collecting his own retirement or disability benefits before you can file as his spouse.
If you also qualify for retirement based on your own work, Social Security does not pay both. You get whichever is larger. When the spousal amount is higher, you receive your own benefit plus a top-up to reach the spousal figure.1eCFR. 20 CFR 404.330 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits
How Much You Can Receive as a Spouse
The ceiling is 50 percent of your husband’s primary insurance amount, meaning the monthly benefit he would receive at his full retirement age.4Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses That 50 percent cap holds whether he claims early, on time, or late. When you claim is what moves the number.
Claiming Early Cuts the Check Permanently
Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.5Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Born in 1960 or Later Claim spousal benefits before then and your monthly payment is reduced for life. The reduction is 25/36 of one percent for each of the first 36 months you claim early, plus 5/12 of one percent for each additional month.4Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses For someone born in 1960 or later who files at 62, the spousal benefit drops from 50 percent to roughly 32.5 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount, a 35 percent permanent cut.6Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction
Waiting Past Full Retirement Age Does Not Add Anything
Spousal benefits do not grow if you delay past full retirement age. The delayed retirement credits that boost your own retirement benefit up to age 70 do not apply to spousal payments.7Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.313 – What Are Delayed Retirement Credits and How Do They Increase My Old-Age Benefit Amount Any credits your husband earns can raise your future survivor benefit, but they do not raise the spousal amount while he is alive.
If You Are Divorced
You can still draw on an ex-husband’s record if your marriage lasted at least 10 years.2Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits You must be currently unmarried and at least 62. Remarriage generally ends eligibility, though a later marriage that itself ends by divorce, annulment, or death restores it.
Your ex does not have to be collecting yet. As long as the divorce has been final for at least two continuous years and you are both 62 or older, you can file on his record independently.8Social Security Administration. If You Had a Prior Marriage The two-year rule keeps him from blocking your claim by delaying his own.
Benefits paid to a divorced spouse do not reduce what your ex-husband or his current wife receives, and they are not counted against the family maximum on his record.9eCFR. 20 CFR 404.403 – Reduction Where Total Monthly Benefits Exceed Maximum Family Benefits Payable Social Security also does not notify him when you apply.
If You Are Widowed
Survivor benefits run on a different set of rules. You can start as early as age 60, or 50 if you have a qualifying disability. The marriage only needs to have lasted nine months, with exceptions for accidental death and death during active military service.10eCFR. 20 CFR 404.335 – How Do I Become Entitled to Widow’s or Widower’s Benefits
At your full retirement age, you are entitled to 100 percent of your late husband’s benefit.11eCFR. 20 CFR Part 404 Subpart D – Old-Age, Disability, Dependents’ and Survivors’ Insurance Benefits Claiming at 60 drops it to roughly 71.5 percent.12Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits If your husband earned delayed retirement credits by waiting to file, those credits carry over and raise your survivor benefit.7Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.313 – What Are Delayed Retirement Credits and How Do They Increase My Old-Age Benefit Amount
Remarriage After 60
Unlike spousal benefits, remarrying at 60 or later does not disqualify you from survivor benefits. If you are disabled, the cutoff is 50.13Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.335 – How Do I Become Entitled to Widow’s or Widower’s Benefits Remarrying earlier ends eligibility, but if that marriage later ends, eligibility returns. A surviving divorced spouse follows the same rules, provided the original marriage lasted at least 10 years.
You Can Take One Benefit Now and Switch Later
Social Security’s deemed filing rule usually forces you to claim all benefits you are eligible for at once. Survivor benefits are exempt.14Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.035 – Deemed Filing That gives widows a real planning choice: take a reduced survivor benefit at 60 while your own retirement grows to 70, then switch; or take your own retirement early and switch to the full survivor benefit at your full retirement age. Which order pays more depends on the two amounts.
Working While You Collect
If you claim spousal or survivor benefits before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test can temporarily hold back part of your check. In 2026:
- Under full retirement age all year: Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480.
- The year you reach full retirement age: $1 is withheld for every $3 above $65,160, counting only earnings before the month you hit full retirement age.
- After full retirement age: no limit.
These thresholds adjust each year for inflation.15Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet Withheld money is not gone. Once you reach full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your monthly amount upward to account for the months benefits were held back.
If You Have a Government Pension
Before 2024, the Government Pension Offset reduced or eliminated spousal and survivor benefits for anyone drawing a pension from government work not covered by Social Security. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed that offset for benefits payable from January 2024 forward.16Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO)
If your benefit had been reduced under the old rule, Social Security has been issuing adjusted monthly payments and one-time retroactive deposits back to January 2024. If you were denied entirely, you may now qualify, but the usual retroactivity limits still apply, so filing sooner rather than later matters.
How to Apply
For a spousal claim on a living husband’s record, file Form SSA-2. You can apply online at ssa.gov if you are within three months of 62 or older, or call 1-800-772-1213, or go to a local field office.17Social Security Administration. Form SSA-2 – Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits For a survivor claim, use Form SSA-10; these generally have to be filed by phone or in person, not online.18Social Security Administration. Form SSA-10 – Information You Need to Apply for Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Divorced Spouse’s Benefits
Have Social Security numbers for both of you, your birth certificate, your marriage certificate or certified divorce decree, a death certificate for a survivor claim, and recent W-2s or self-employment returns. Processing typically takes about 30 days.19Social Security Administration. Contact Social Security By Phone
If you file after reaching full retirement age, you can receive up to six months of retroactive payments.20Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.030 – Retroactivity for Title II Benefits Retroactive payments are only available when they would not trigger a permanent reduction, so filing before full retirement age does not qualify.