Your spouse can collect half of your Social Security when they reach their own full retirement age, provided you’re already drawing your retirement or disability benefit and the marriage has lasted at least a year. They can start as early as age 62, but filing that early permanently reduces the check well below the 50% ceiling. A younger spouse caring for your child who is under 16 or disabled can collect at any age, and without the early-filing reduction.
The Four Conditions Your Spouse Has to Meet
Four things must line up before a spousal benefit can start. You have to be receiving your own retirement or disability benefit already. Your spouse must be at least 62, unless the child-in-care exception applies. The marriage must have lasted at least one year before your spouse files. And your spouse must either have no Social Security benefit of their own, or their own benefit must be less than half of yours.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments
The one-year marriage rule has a carve-out. If your spouse is the biological parent of your child, they can file right after the wedding.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 416 – Additional Definitions Social Security also recognizes common-law marriages that are legally valid in the state where they were established, though the agency asks for extra documentation to confirm the relationship.
Why Filing at 62 Doesn’t Get You the Full Half
The full 50% only goes to a spouse who waits until their own full retirement age. For anyone born in 1960 or later, that age is 67.4Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction Claiming earlier triggers a permanent reduction calculated as 25/36 of one percent for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age, plus 5/12 of one percent for every additional month beyond that.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
In practice, a spouse born in 1960 or later who files at 62 receives about 32.5% of your primary insurance amount rather than 50%. For someone whose full retirement age is 66 and 6 months, the floor at 62 is closer to 33.75%. The reduction sticks for life. It does not reset when your spouse gets older.4Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction
Waiting past full retirement age does not help either. Spousal benefits do not earn delayed retirement credits. The 50% cap is the ceiling, and holding off beyond full retirement age gives your spouse nothing extra.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
The Exception That Skips the Age Rule
The age 62 requirement disappears when your spouse is caring for your child who is under 16, or a child of any age who is disabled and receiving Social Security disability benefits on your record. A much younger spouse can start receiving payments in that situation, and the benefit is not reduced for early filing. Your spouse gets the full 50% of your primary insurance amount regardless of their age.1Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
The payments stop when the youngest qualifying child turns 16, unless that child is disabled. Your spouse can file again once they reach 62 on their own.
What Happens If Your Spouse Has Their Own Work Record
Most spouses who claim on a partner’s record also have some Social Security earnings history of their own. When both exist, Social Security applies dual entitlement. The agency pays your spouse’s own earned benefit first, then adds a supplement to bring the total up to the spousal amount if the spousal figure is higher. If your spouse’s own benefit already equals or exceeds half of your primary insurance amount, no spousal supplement is paid.5Social Security Administration. POMS RS 00615.020 – Dual Entitlement Overview
This is where couples often discover the spousal check is smaller than they pictured. The 50% figure matters most when one partner earned significantly more than the other over their working life.
Government Pension Offset Repeal
Until recently, a spouse who earned a pension from a government job that did not pay into Social Security saw their spousal benefit reduced by two-thirds of that pension. The Government Pension Offset zeroed out spousal benefits for many retired teachers, firefighters, and state employees. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, repealed the offset for all benefits payable after December 2023. Affected beneficiaries are eligible for retroactive payments back to January 2024.6Social Security Administration. Government Pension Offset
The Deemed Filing Rule
Before 2016, a spouse at full retirement age could file for spousal benefits alone while letting their own worker benefit grow with delayed retirement credits. That option is gone. Under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, filing for one type of benefit automatically counts as filing for the other. Social Security pays the higher amount, but your spouse cannot pick and choose.7Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
The rule applies to everyone born on or after January 2, 1954. The exceptions are narrow: a spouse caring for your qualifying child can file for spousal benefits alone without being deemed to have filed for retirement, and a person already receiving disability benefits is not deemed to have filed for reduced retirement.8Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00204.035 – Deemed Filing Deemed filing does not apply to survivor benefits.
Divorced Spouses Get the Same Half
A former spouse can collect on your record if the marriage lasted at least ten years before the divorce was final, the former spouse is currently unmarried, and both of you are at least 62.9Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse The same 50% cap and the same early filing reductions apply.
One meaningful difference works in a divorced spouse’s favor: if the divorce has been final for at least two years, the former spouse can start collecting even if you have not filed for benefits yourself, as long as you are at least 62 and eligible.9Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.331 – Who Is Entitled to Wife’s or Husband’s Benefits as a Divorced Spouse Payments to a divorced spouse do not reduce your own benefit and do not affect what a current spouse receives.
Remarrying generally ends eligibility on an ex-spouse’s record. If that later marriage ends by divorce, annulment, or death, eligibility on the original ex-spouse’s record can resume. Your own remarriage has no effect on a former spouse’s benefit.
Working While Collecting
If your spouse claims before their own full retirement age and keeps working, the earnings test can temporarily reduce or eliminate the monthly check. For 2026, Social Security withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 earned above $24,480. In the calendar year your spouse reaches full retirement age, the threshold rises to $65,160, and the withholding drops to $1 for every $3 above that limit. Only earnings before the month of reaching full retirement age count in that final year.10Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
The withheld money is not lost. Once your spouse reaches full retirement age, Social Security recalculates the benefit to credit back the months where payments were reduced. In the meantime, though, the missing income can strain a household budget.
When the Benefit Can Exceed Half
The 50% ceiling applies only while you’re alive. After your death, your spouse can switch to survivor benefits, which can reach 100% of your benefit at the survivor’s full retirement age. A surviving spouse claiming as early as age 60 receives a reduced amount starting at about 71.5%, rising with each month closer to full retirement age.11Social Security Administration. What You Could Get from Survivor Benefits Because deemed filing does not apply to survivor benefits, a surviving spouse can take one benefit first and switch to the other later.
How to Apply
Applications for spousal benefits use Form SSA-2. Social Security may ask for birth certificates, a marriage certificate, a final divorce decree if applicable, W-2 forms or self-employment returns from the prior year, and proof of citizenship if your spouse was not born in the United States.12Social Security Administration. Information You Need to Apply for Spouse’s or Divorced Spouse’s Benefits Documents must be originals or certified copies, and both Social Security numbers are needed to link the records.
Applications go through the SSA’s online portal, a phone appointment on the national toll-free line, or an in-person visit to a local office. Bank routing and account numbers set up direct deposit from the first payment. If your spouse is still working, bringing current earnings information helps the agency figure out whether the earnings test will reduce the initial checks.