Social Security for divorced spouses lets you collect a monthly benefit on your ex-spouse’s earnings record if the marriage lasted at least ten years, you’re 62 or older, and you’re currently unmarried. At full retirement age, that benefit is worth up to 50 percent of what your ex-spouse earned at their own full retirement age. Claim earlier and the amount shrinks permanently. Different, more generous rules apply if your ex-spouse has died.
Who Qualifies
Five conditions all have to be true before the Social Security Administration will pay you on an ex-spouse’s record:
- Your marriage lasted at least ten continuous years before the divorce became final.
- You’re currently unmarried.
- You’re at least 62.
- Your ex-spouse is at least 62 and eligible for Social Security retirement or disability benefits, whether or not they’ve actually filed.
- Your own retirement benefit, if any, is smaller than what you’d get on your ex-spouse’s record.
One wrinkle catches people. If your ex-spouse hasn’t filed for their own benefits yet, you can still collect on their record, but only if you’ve been divorced for at least two continuous years. That waiting period exists so your ex-spouse doesn’t have to lift a finger for you to get paid.1Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse
What Remarriage Does
Remarrying generally ends your eligibility on a former spouse’s record. Benefits stop the month before you remarry. If that later marriage also ends through divorce, annulment, or death, eligibility on the earlier ex-spouse’s record can be restored.2eCFR. 20 CFR 404.332 – Wife’s or Husband’s Benefit Amounts and Termination
Your ex-spouse’s remarriage, on the other hand, has zero effect on you. You and any new spouse can both collect on the same worker’s record at the same time, and neither payment reduces the other. Your benefit also takes nothing from your ex-spouse’s own check.3Social Security Administration. Is There a Limit to the Amount of Monthly Benefits My Family Can Get on My Record
How Much You Get
At your full retirement age, the divorced spouse benefit equals 50 percent of your ex-spouse’s primary insurance amount, meaning the benefit they earned based on their lifetime earnings, calculated at their own full retirement age. If your own retirement benefit is larger than that 50 percent figure, Social Security pays you your own, larger benefit instead.4Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
Claiming Before Full Retirement Age
You can file as early as 62, but every month you claim before full retirement age permanently cuts the check. The reduction is 25/36 of one percent per month for the first 36 months early, then an additional 5/12 of one percent for each month beyond that. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67, so filing at 62 means 60 months of reduction.5Social Security Administration. Retirement Benefits
Do the math for someone with a full retirement age of 67 who files at 62. The first 36 months cost 25 percent. The remaining 24 months cost another 10 percent. That 35 percent reduction takes the benefit from 50 percent of the ex-spouse’s primary insurance amount down to 32.5 percent, and that reduced amount locks in for life.4Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
Yearly Increases
Once payments start, the amount adjusts each year for inflation. The 2026 cost-of-living adjustment is 2.8 percent. Increases are automatic and apply to every beneficiary, divorced spouses included.6Social Security Administration. Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information
You Can’t File for Just One Benefit
If you were born on January 2, 1954, or later, deemed filing applies. Filing for your own retirement benefit automatically counts as filing for the divorced spouse benefit too, and the reverse. Social Security compares the two amounts and pays the higher one. You can’t collect only the divorced spouse benefit at 62 while letting your own retirement benefit grow until 70.7Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.035 – Deemed Filing
That older strategy of restricting the application to just the spousal benefit while delaying your own now only works for people born before January 2, 1954.
If Your Ex-Spouse Has Died
The rules shift in your favor when an ex-spouse dies. The minimum age drops to 60, or 50 with a qualifying disability. The marriage still has to have lasted at least ten years. Remarriage after age 60 does not disqualify you, which is a major change from benefits on a living ex-spouse’s record.8Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
At your survivor full retirement age (between 66 and 67 depending on your birth year), you receive 100 percent of what the deceased ex-spouse was collecting or was entitled to. Claim earlier and the percentage drops. At 60, the benefit is 71.5 percent. It rises with each month you wait: roughly 75 percent at 61, over 80 percent at 63, above 90 percent at 65.9Social Security Administration. What You Could Get From Survivor Benefits
If your ex-spouse was married more than once, every qualifying ex-spouse and the current surviving spouse can all collect on the same record. One person’s payment doesn’t reduce anyone else’s. Divorced-spouse survivor benefits are also excluded from the family maximum that otherwise caps what a single worker’s record can pay out.3Social Security Administration. Is There a Limit to the Amount of Monthly Benefits My Family Can Get on My Record
Caring for the Ex-Spouse’s Child
Family benefit rules let a spouse or ex-spouse collect at any age while caring for the worker’s child who is under 16 or has a disability. The ten-year marriage rule still applies for divorced spouses. This is how a younger divorced parent can sometimes receive benefits well before 62, though the requirements around the child’s relationship to the worker are strict.10Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits
Public Pensions No Longer Reduce the Benefit
Before 2024, a divorced spouse benefit could be cut back or wiped out entirely if you also received a government pension from work not covered by Social Security, such as certain state and local government jobs. The Government Pension Offset subtracted two-thirds of that pension from your Social Security spousal or survivor benefit, which zeroed out many public-sector workers completely.
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, repealed the Government Pension Offset for all benefits payable after December 2023. If you were previously denied or reduced because of the offset, you’re now entitled to the full amount and may receive retroactive payments going back to January 2024.11Congress.gov. The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023
What to Gather Before You Apply
Have these ready:
- Social Security numbers for both you and your ex-spouse. If you don’t have your ex-spouse’s number, bring their date of birth and parents’ names so the agency can look it up.
- An original or certified copy of your marriage certificate.
- An original or certified copy of your final divorce decree. If you’ve lost yours, contact the clerk of the court where the divorce was finalized.
- Proof of age, typically a birth certificate.
Social Security requires originals or certified copies of most documents and returns them after review. Photocopies are accepted only for tax returns and medical records.12Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits
How to File
For benefits on a living ex-spouse’s record, you can apply online at ssa.gov, by calling 1-800-772-1213, or by visiting a local Social Security office. An appointment isn’t required at a field office, but booking one ahead cuts the wait.13Social Security Administration. Online Services
Survivor benefits work differently. You generally cannot file online. Call the toll-free number or go to a local office instead.14Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Divorced Spouse’s Benefits