Social Security spousal benefits pay you a monthly check based on your husband’s or wife’s work record, up to half of what they would receive at full retirement age. In 2026, the maximum spousal benefit is $2,076 per month, half of the $4,152 maximum worker benefit at full retirement age.1Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet Whether you actually reach that 50 percent cap depends on when you file, whether you have your own work record, and how the rules treat your particular marriage.
Who Qualifies
Three basic conditions have to be met. You must have been married to the worker for at least one continuous year, you must be at least 62, and your spouse must already be receiving retirement or disability benefits.2Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits The one-year requirement has an exception if you’re caring for your spouse’s child, but for most retirees the year is what matters.
Same-sex marriages qualify on the same terms as any other marriage. After the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Social Security began processing spousal claims for all legally married same-sex couples regardless of where they live.3Social Security Administration. What Same-Sex Couples Need to Know
Common-law marriages count only if you established the relationship in a jurisdiction that legally recognizes them. As of late 2025, nine states and the District of Columbia do: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, and Utah. If your common-law marriage was formed in one of those places, Social Security will honor it even after you move somewhere that doesn’t. Both spouses fill out a Statement of Marital Relationship form and provide supporting statements from blood relatives.
How Much You Get
The core formula is simple. Your spousal benefit equals up to 50 percent of your spouse’s Primary Insurance Amount, the figure they would receive at full retirement age.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments That 50 percent is a ceiling. A spousal benefit does not grow if you delay past full retirement age, so waiting until 70 buys you nothing extra.
If you have your own work record, you can’t collect a spousal benefit on top of it. Under deemed filing, applying for any benefit files you for every benefit you’re eligible for, and you receive the higher of the two.5Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits When your own retirement benefit is smaller than the spousal amount, Social Security pays your own benefit first and adds a supplement to bring you up to the spousal level. When your own is larger, the spousal portion is zero. Deemed filing applies to anyone born in 1954 or later, which by 2026 covers essentially all new applicants.
Claiming Before Full Retirement Age
Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.6Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction You can start spousal benefits as early as 62, but early filing locks in a permanent reduction: about 25/36 of one percent per month for the first 36 months before full retirement age, then 5/12 of one percent for each additional month.7Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
Filing at 62 leaves you with 32.5 percent of the worker’s PIA instead of the full 50 percent, a 35 percent haircut that never goes away.6Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction On a worker’s PIA of $2,500, that’s the difference between $812.50 a month at 62 and $1,250 at 67, or more than $5,000 a year for the rest of your life. There’s no way to reverse the reduction once payments begin.
Working While Collecting
If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test temporarily reduces your payments. In 2026, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480 if you’re under full retirement age for the entire year.8Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working In the year you reach full retirement age, the limit rises to $65,160 and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 earned above that, counting only the months before your birthday.
The test disappears once you hit full retirement age. From that point you can earn any amount without losing benefits, and Social Security recalculates your payment to credit back the withheld months, which slightly raises your monthly amount going forward.
Divorced Spouses
You can collect on a former spouse’s record if the marriage lasted at least ten years, the divorce is final, and you are currently unmarried.9Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse The age and other basic rules are the same as for a current spouse.
One difference works in your favor. Your ex-spouse doesn’t have to have filed yet. If your ex is at least 62 and your divorce has been final for at least two continuous years, you can claim on your own.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments Your claim has no effect on your ex’s payment or on any benefits their current spouse receives, and Social Security won’t notify your former partner that you’ve filed.10Social Security Administration. Can Someone Get Social Security Benefits on Their Former Spouse’s Record?
Remarriage generally ends your eligibility on the former partner’s record. If the later marriage itself ends through death, divorce, or annulment, you can typically re-qualify on the original ex-spouse’s record as long as the ten-year and age requirements are still met.
If your ex-spouse dies, the divorced spousal benefit can convert to a survivor benefit, which pays up to 100 percent of the deceased worker’s amount. A surviving divorced spouse can begin reduced survivor benefits as early as age 60, or 50 with a qualifying disability, and the ten-year marriage rule still applies.11Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
Survivor Benefits Are Different
Survivor benefits are a separate program from the spousal benefits above, and they’re more generous. When your spouse dies, you can receive up to 100 percent of their benefit amount at your full retirement age, compared to the 50 percent cap while your spouse is living.12Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits Claiming before full retirement age reduces the payment to somewhere between 71 and 99 percent of the deceased worker’s benefit, depending on your age.
The earliest you can claim is 60, or 50 with a qualifying disability.11Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits Survivor benefits are also exempt from deemed filing, which opens up real strategy: you can take a reduced survivor benefit at 60 and switch to your own retirement benefit at 70 if your own record produces more, or the reverse. This is one of the few situations where you can collect one benefit while letting another grow.
Caring for a Child
You don’t have to be 62 to collect if you’re caring for your spouse’s child under 16, or a child of any age with a qualifying disability.2Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Family Benefits The child-in-care benefit pays the full 50 percent of the worker’s PIA with no early-claiming reduction, and it’s exempt from deemed filing, so it won’t force you into your own retirement benefit early.
The benefit ends when the youngest qualifying child turns 16, unless the child has a disability. That creates a gap sometimes called the blackout period: between the year your child turns 16 and the year you turn 62, no spousal benefits are payable. Younger spouses in particular need to plan around those years.
Public Employees and the Government Pension Offset
If you receive a pension from a government job that didn’t withhold Social Security taxes, you were previously subject to the Government Pension Offset, which reduced your spousal benefit by two-thirds of your pension and often eliminated it. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, eliminated the Government Pension Offset.13Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Update Retired teachers, firefighters, and other public employees who were previously denied spousal benefits under the offset should contact Social Security to have their case reviewed.
Taxes
Spousal benefits are taxable at the federal level once your combined income crosses certain thresholds. The IRS defines combined income as your adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest plus half of your total Social Security benefits. If that figure exceeds $25,000 for a single filer or $32,000 for a couple filing jointly, up to 85 percent of your benefits may be taxable.14Social Security Administration. Must I Pay Taxes on Social Security Benefits? These thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation. If you’re married filing separately and lived with your spouse at any point during the year, the threshold is $0.15Internal Revenue Service. Social Security Income
How to Apply
The application is Form SSA-2, “Application for Wife’s or Husband’s Insurance Benefits.”16Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits You’ll need:
- Social Security numbers for you and your spouse or former spouse.
- An original or certified birth certificate as proof of age.
- Your marriage certificate.
- Your divorce decree, if applying as a divorced spouse.
- Bank account details for direct deposit.
The form also asks for your place of birth, any prior marriages, and whether you have unmarried children who might qualify on the same record.17Social Security Administration. Application for Wife’s or Husband’s Insurance Benefits Photocopies of W-2s and tax returns are accepted, but most other documents like birth certificates must be originals, which Social Security returns after processing.
You can apply online, by phone interview, or in person at a local field office. The online option is fastest and gives you an immediate confirmation number. Processing generally takes one to three months. Once approved, you receive a written notice of award with your monthly amount and the date of your first deposit.
If you were eligible before you applied, Social Security may pay up to six months of retroactive benefits, but only for months after you reached full retirement age.18Social Security Administration. Retroactive Effect of Application Retroactive payments aren’t available for months before full retirement age because paying them would lock in a permanent reduction. If you’re 64 and forget to file for two years, you can’t recover those months at 66; the six-month lookback works only after you’ve passed full retirement age.