A spouse can claim Social Security spousal benefits as early as age 62, provided the marriage has lasted at least one year and the higher-earning spouse is already receiving retirement or disability benefits.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses Filing at 62 locks in a permanent reduction. Waiting until your own full retirement age pays the maximum: 50 percent of your spouse’s benefit at their full retirement age.
The Age Rule and the One-Year Marriage Rule
Two thresholds control the earliest date you can file. You must be 62, and the marriage must have lasted at least one year. The one-year requirement is met in the month your first anniversary falls.2eCFR. 20 CFR 404.330 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits
There are narrow exceptions. If you are caring for the worker’s child who is under 16 or has a disability, you can receive spousal benefits at any age, and the one-year marriage requirement is also waived if you and the worker share a natural child or if you were already receiving certain Social Security benefits (widow’s, widower’s, or parent’s benefits) in the month before you married.2eCFR. 20 CFR 404.330 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits
Common-law marriages count if they are valid under the law of the state where you live or where the marriage was established. Only a minority of states recognize common-law marriage, so this is a limited path.
Your Spouse Has to Be Collecting First
Reaching 62 isn’t enough on its own. As a current spouse, you generally can’t claim on your partner’s record until they have filed for and started receiving their own retirement or disability check. The worker also needs at least 40 Social Security credits, roughly 10 years of covered work, to qualify for retirement benefits in the first place.3Social Security Administration. Social Security Credits and Benefit Eligibility
If your spouse qualifies for Social Security Disability Insurance, you can draw spousal benefits on that record even though they haven’t reached retirement age. But if your spouse is retirement-eligible and simply hasn’t filed, a current spouse has to wait. Divorced spouses have a workaround, discussed below.
How Much You’ll Receive at Each Age
The full spousal benefit is 50 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount, which is what the worker is entitled to at their own full retirement age.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses You get the full 50 percent only if you wait until your own full retirement age to file. For anyone born in 1960 or later, that age is 67.
Claiming earlier means a permanent reduction. At 62, the earliest possible filing age, the spousal benefit drops to 32.5 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount, a 35 percent cut from the full rate.4Social Security Administration. Benefit Reduction for Early Retirement Filing between 62 and full retirement age produces an amount between those two figures.
Two other points shape the number you actually see:
- If you have your own work record, SSA pays your own retirement benefit first and adds the difference only if the spousal amount would be higher. You never receive less than your own earned benefit, and you can’t collect both in full.5Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
- Delayed retirement credits your spouse earns by waiting past their full retirement age do not raise your spousal benefit. The ceiling stays at 50 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount, no matter how long they delay.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
Deemed Filing: You Can’t Take Just the Spousal Check
When you apply for either your own retirement benefit or a spousal benefit, SSA treats the application as a claim for both.5Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits You can’t file for the spousal amount alone at 62 while letting your own retirement benefit grow to 70. SSA compares the two and pays the higher combined result.
Deemed filing has a few exceptions. It doesn’t apply to survivor benefits, so a widow or widower can start survivors and delay their own retirement, or the reverse. It also doesn’t apply if you’re already entitled to disability, or if you’re drawing spousal benefits because you’re caring for the worker’s child.
If You’re Divorced
A divorced spouse can claim on a former partner’s record with a different set of conditions. The marriage must have lasted at least 10 years before the divorce was final.6eCFR. 20 CFR 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse You must be at least 62, currently unmarried, and not eligible for a higher benefit on your own record.
The workaround for a stalling ex: if your former spouse is 62 or older but hasn’t filed, you can still claim on their record so long as your divorce has been final for at least two continuous years.7Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse Your ex-spouse doesn’t need to know you filed, and the benefits paid to you don’t reduce what your ex or their current spouse receives.
Remarrying generally ends your ability to collect on a former spouse’s record. If the new marriage later ends by divorce, annulment, or death, eligibility on the earlier record can be restored.
If Your Spouse Has Died
Spousal benefits are for living workers. If your spouse has died, you’re looking at survivor benefits instead, which run on their own timing rules: as early as age 60 in most cases, with a nine-month marriage requirement, and payments up to 100 percent of the deceased worker’s benefit at your full retirement age.8Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits Survivor benefits and retirement benefits stay separate for filing purposes, so you can claim one and switch to the other later.
Working While You Collect
Filing at 62 doesn’t mean you have to stop working, but earned income can temporarily reduce your check. For 2026, if you’re under full retirement age for the full year, SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480.9Social Security Administration. Exempt Amounts Under the Earnings Test
In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, the limit rises to $65,160 and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 above the limit, counting only earnings before the month you hit full retirement age. Starting the month you reach full retirement age, the earnings test disappears and you can earn any amount.10Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
How to File
You can apply online at the SSA website, by phone, or in person at a local field office. The form is the SSA-2, Application for Wife’s or Husband’s Insurance Benefits.11Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits Have these ready:
- Your marriage certificate
- Your birth certificate or other proof of age
- Your spouse’s Social Security number, or date of birth and identifying details if the number isn’t available
- Bank account information for direct deposit
- Final divorce decree if you’re applying as a divorced spouse, plus names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of any former spouses
SSA processes most retirement and spousal claims in about 14 days when benefits are due immediately or before the start date you requested.12Social Security Administration. Social Security Performance Cases involving divorced spouses or foreign documents tend to take longer.
One historical note worth checking if you have a government pension: the Government Pension Offset, which used to reduce or eliminate spousal benefits for people receiving pensions from non-covered government work, was eliminated by the Social Security Fairness Act signed on January 5, 2025, for benefits payable from January 2024 onward.13Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Update If your spousal claim was previously reduced or denied on that basis, you may now be entitled to full benefits or a retroactive adjustment.