Spousal Social Security works by letting a husband or wife collect a benefit based on the other spouse’s earnings record, worth up to 50 percent of that spouse’s full retirement benefit. It’s designed for people who never worked, earned much less than their spouse, or spent years out of the paid workforce. Divorced spouses can qualify too if the marriage lasted at least ten years. What you actually receive depends on when you file, whether you have your own work record, and how much you’re still earning.
Who Qualifies as a Current Spouse
Three conditions have to be met. You must be at least 62, your marriage must have lasted at least one continuous year, and your spouse must already be collecting retirement or disability benefits.
There is one exception to the age rule. If you are caring for your spouse’s child who is under 16 or has a disability, you can collect at any age, and the benefit is not reduced for filing early.
Who Qualifies as a Divorced Spouse
If your marriage lasted at least ten years before the divorce was final, you can collect on your ex-spouse’s record. You need to be unmarried and at least 62. Your ex-spouse doesn’t need to consent, doesn’t need to be notified, and what you collect has no effect on their benefit or on any current spouse’s benefit.
Divorced spouses get one important break. Normally the worker has to be collecting before a spouse can file, but if you’ve been divorced for at least two continuous years and your ex is 62 or older, you can file even if your ex hasn’t started their own benefit yet.
Remarriage generally ends your ability to claim on the former spouse’s record. If that later marriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment, eligibility on the earlier ex-spouse’s record can be restored.
How Much You Get
The Social Security Administration calculates each worker’s primary insurance amount from their lifetime earnings. Your spousal benefit is a percentage of that number, and the percentage is set by the age at which you file.
At Full Retirement Age
Wait until your full retirement age and you get the maximum: 50 percent of your spouse’s primary insurance amount. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67.
Filing Early
You can start as early as 62, but every month you claim before full retirement age permanently reduces the benefit. For someone with a full retirement age of 67 who files at 62, the spousal benefit works out to roughly 32.5 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount instead of 50 percent. The reduction sticks. Your check won’t jump up once you reach full retirement age.
Waiting Past Full Retirement Age Buys You Nothing
Unlike your own retirement benefit, spousal benefits don’t earn delayed retirement credits. The 50 percent figure is the ceiling. Waiting until 70 to file for a spousal benefit gets you the same amount you would have received at your full retirement age.
The Family Maximum
There’s a cap on the total benefits payable on any one worker’s record. For workers turning 62 in 2026, the family maximum generally lands between 150 and 188 percent of the worker’s benefit, using a formula that applies different percentages to portions of the primary insurance amount. When more than one family member collects on the same record and the total would exceed the cap, the worker’s own benefit stays whole and the spousal and child benefits are cut proportionally to fit.
You Cannot Choose Between Your Own Benefit and a Spousal Benefit
If you’re eligible for both your own retirement benefit and a spousal benefit, filing for one is treated as filing for both. This is called deemed filing. The agency pays the higher of the two.
What that looks like in practice: Social Security first pays your own retirement benefit. If the spousal amount would be higher, they add a supplement to bring you up to it. You don’t get two checks. If your own benefit is $900 and the spousal amount would be $1,200, you receive $900 plus a $300 supplement.
Deemed filing applies to everyone who turned 62 on or after January 2, 2016. The old “restricted application” strategy that let some filers collect a spousal benefit while letting their own benefit grow was closed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 and is no longer available in any practical sense.
Working While You Collect
If you’re under full retirement age and still earning, the earnings test can reduce your spousal check. In 2026, you can earn up to $24,480 with no reduction. Above that, $1 is withheld for every $2 you earn.
The rule loosens in the calendar year you reach full retirement age. The threshold jumps to $65,160, and the withholding rate drops to $1 for every $3 earned above it. Only earnings in months before you reach full retirement age count.
Withheld benefits aren’t permanently lost. Once you reach full retirement age, the agency recalculates and credits you for the months benefits were withheld, which offsets the earlier reduction over time.
When the Worker Dies
Spousal benefits stop at the worker’s death and are replaced by survivor benefits, which are governed by a different set of rules and can pay up to 100 percent of the deceased worker’s benefit. Surviving divorced spouses qualify if the marriage lasted at least ten years, and remarrying after age 60 does not disqualify you. If survivor benefits apply to your situation, the eligibility ages and marriage-length rules differ from the spousal rules described above and should be checked separately.
Taxes
Spousal benefits can be subject to federal income tax depending on your household’s total income. The IRS uses “combined income,” which is your adjusted gross income plus any nontaxable interest plus half of your total Social Security benefits for the year.
The thresholds have not been adjusted for inflation since they were set in 1993:
- Married filing jointly: combined income between $32,000 and $44,000, up to 50 percent of benefits may be taxable; above $44,000, up to 85 percent may be taxable.
- Single filers: the corresponding thresholds are $25,000 and $34,000.
Because the thresholds stay frozen while cost-of-living adjustments raise benefits, more retirees cross them each year.
The Government Pension Offset No Longer Applies
For decades, 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. Two-thirds of the government pension was subtracted from the Social Security benefit.
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, repealed the offset. December 2023 was the last month it applied. Anyone whose benefits had been reduced has been receiving adjusted payments and a retroactive lump sum covering the period back to January 2024. If you skipped filing for a spousal benefit in the past because of the offset, it’s worth looking at your eligibility again.
How to Apply
You can apply online at ssa.gov, by phone at 1-800-772-1213, or in person at a local field office. The online application handles most spousal claims and lets you save and return using a re-entry number.
The formal application is Form SSA-2. Have these ready:
- Social Security numbers for you and the spouse whose record you’re filing on
- Proof of age, typically an original or certified birth certificate
- Marriage certificate
- Final divorce decree if filing as a divorced spouse, to verify the marriage lasted more than ten years
- Bank account and routing numbers for direct deposit
- Recent tax information, including W-2 forms or self-employment returns, so the agency can apply the earnings test if it applies
Documents must be originals or certified copies from the issuing agency. In-person applicants can have documents scanned and returned on the spot. For online filings, the system will tell you which documents to mail or bring to a local office. Processing generally takes longer than a few weeks, and having complete documents at the start avoids follow-up requests that stretch the timeline further.