Can I Take My Husband’s Social Security Instead of Mine?

Yes, you can collect Social Security on your husband’s earnings record instead of your own, but only in a specific sense: when you file, Social Security compares the two amounts and pays you the larger one. You don’t get both stacked together, and under current law you generally can’t take his while letting yours grow. So the real question behind “can I take my husband’s Social Security instead of mine” is whether his record would produce a bigger check than yours, and the maximum it can produce for you while he’s alive is 50% of the benefit he’d receive at his full retirement age.¹

Who Qualifies to Claim on a Husband’s Record

Three conditions have to line up. You need to have been married at least one continuous year. You must be at least 62, unless you’re caring for a child under 16 or a child receiving Social Security disability benefits. And your husband must have already filed for his own retirement or disability benefits.¹

That last requirement catches people off guard. If your husband hasn’t claimed yet and isn’t planning to soon, you can’t trigger a spousal benefit on your own initiative. Divorced spouses, as covered below, aren’t held to this rule.

When you apply, plan to bring your birth certificate, marriage certificate, and W-2 forms or self-employment tax returns from the prior year. Social Security accepts photocopies of tax documents but usually wants originals of the rest.²

How Much You’d Actually Receive

The spousal benefit is calculated from your husband’s Primary Insurance Amount, meaning the monthly benefit he’d get if he claimed exactly at his full retirement age. The most you can receive is 50% of that figure, and only if you wait until your own full retirement age to file. Full retirement age falls somewhere between 66 and 67 depending on your birth year, reaching 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.³

File early and the amount shrinks permanently. Social Security reduces the spousal benefit by 25/36 of one percent for each of the first 36 months you claim before full retirement age, then by 5/12 of one percent for each additional month. If your full retirement age is 67 and you file at 62, your spousal benefit drops to roughly 32.5% of your husband’s PIA instead of 50%.¹

One nuance that surprises people: the 50% ceiling is tied to his PIA, not to what he actually collects. If he delays past his full retirement age to earn delayed retirement credits, his own check grows, but your spousal benefit stays anchored at 50% of the PIA. His delay does raise the survivor benefit you’d receive after his death, which is a separate matter and often the more important one.

Why You Can’t Take His and Let Yours Grow

Before 2016, some spouses used a “restricted application” to collect only the spousal benefit at full retirement age while their own retirement benefit kept building delayed retirement credits. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 closed that path. Under the current “deemed filing” rule, applying for any retirement-related benefit is treated as applying for every retirement-related benefit you qualify for at that moment. You receive the higher amount, but you can’t collect one while the other quietly grows.⁴

The line is drawn by birth date. If you were born on January 2, 1954, or later, deemed filing applies to you at every age, including at and after full retirement age. The old restricted-application option survives only for the shrinking group born before that date who haven’t yet claimed.⁵

Concretely: if your own retirement benefit at full retirement age would be $1,200 and your spousal benefit would be $1,400, Social Security pays $1,400. The two don’t stack, and you can’t collect the $1,400 while letting the $1,200 grow toward age 70.

If You’re Divorced

A divorce doesn’t automatically end your access to your former husband’s record. To claim as a divorced spouse, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years, you must be at least 62, and you must be currently unmarried.⁶

Unlike a current spouse, you don’t need your ex-husband to have filed. If the divorce was finalized at least two years ago and he’s at least 62 and eligible for benefits, you can file on his record on your own timing. Your claim doesn’t reduce his check or affect what his current spouse receives, and it doesn’t count against any family maximum on his record.

Remarriage generally cuts off eligibility on an ex-spouse’s record. If that later marriage ends by divorce or death, eligibility on the earlier ex-spouse’s record can come back.⁷

If Your Husband Passes Away, the Rules Change

Survivor benefits work differently, and more generously, than spousal benefits. A widow can receive up to 100% of the husband’s benefit amount, compared to the 50% ceiling that applies during his lifetime. This is the main reason planners urge the higher earner to delay claiming.⁸

You can claim a reduced survivor benefit starting at age 60, or age 50 with a qualifying disability. If you’re caring for your late husband’s child who is under 16 or disabled, there’s no minimum age. The amount depends on when you claim:

At your survivor full retirement age or later: 100% of your husband’s benefit amount.
Between age 60 and survivor full retirement age: roughly 71.5% to 99%, sliding with age.
At any age while caring for a qualifying child: 75% of his benefit amount.

Here’s the strategic piece the 2015 law left intact: deemed filing does not apply to survivor benefits. If you’re eligible for both your own retirement benefit and a survivor benefit, you can take one first and switch to the other later. A widow might collect a reduced survivor benefit at 60 while her own retirement benefit grows until 70, or take her own smaller retirement benefit early and switch to the full survivor benefit at survivor full retirement age.⁵

Remarriage rules are gentler for survivors. Remarry before 60 and you generally lose survivor eligibility on the deceased spouse’s record unless that later marriage also ends. Remarry at 60 or later and survivor eligibility isn’t affected.⁷

If You’re Still Working

Claim before full retirement age and keep working, and the earnings test may pull back some of your check. In 2026, the threshold is $24,480 per year, with $1 in benefits withheld for every $2 you earn above it.⁹

In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, the threshold jumps to $65,160 and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 over the limit. Once you actually reach full retirement age, the earnings test ends and Social Security recalculates your benefit upward to credit any months when payments were withheld.¹⁰

If You Have a Government Pension

For years, the Government Pension Offset reduced or wiped out spousal and survivor benefits for people receiving a pension from government work not covered by Social Security. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, eliminated that offset for all benefits payable after December 2023. If you were previously affected, Social Security is recalculating benefits and issuing retroactive payments back to January 2024.¹¹

Getting the Most From Both Records

Deemed filing narrows the choices, but couple-level timing still matters. The most effective move for most couples is simple: the higher earner delays as long as possible, ideally to age 70.

Every year your husband delays past his full retirement age, his benefit grows by 8% through delayed retirement credits. That increase is permanent and carries through to your survivor benefit. If his full retirement age benefit would be $2,800 and he waits until 70, it grows to roughly $3,472. If he passes first, you’d receive the full $3,472 as a survivor benefit rather than $2,800.¹²

Meanwhile, as the lower earner you might claim at your own full retirement age (getting whichever is higher between your retirement benefit and the spousal benefit) to bring income into the household while the larger check keeps growing. For couples with a wide earnings gap, this pattern can add tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

How to File

You can apply for spousal benefits at ssa.gov starting three months before you turn 62, or by phone or at a local office. Divorced spouses should bring the final divorce decree along with the standard documents.²

Remember the trigger: your husband has to have already filed for his own benefits before you can claim as a current spouse. Divorced spouses skip that requirement as long as the divorce has been final at least two years and the ex-spouse is at least 62.

1
Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
2
Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits
3
Social Security Administration. Retirement Benefits
4
Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
5
Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.035 – Deemed Filing
6
Social Security Administration. If You Had A Prior Marriage
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Social Security Administration. Will Remarrying Affect My Social Security Benefits
8
Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
9
Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
10
Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
11
Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO)
12
Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits