If your spouse earned more money than you did over their working life, or if you didn’t work enough to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits, you may rely on spousal benefits to help cover your bills in retirement.
Unfortunately, there’s one rule about Social Security spousal benefits that’s likely to be a disappointment.
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Social Security spousal benefits come with a major downside
One unexpected downside to be aware of if you’re collecting Social Security spousal benefits is that you cannot increase these benefits by waiting to claim them beyond your full retirement age.
When you collect Social Security retirement benefits, you can increase your monthly payment for each month that you wait to start receiving checks after your full retirement age. Depending on when your FRA is, you can increase your checks by as much as 24%.
Since Social Security is protected against inflation and lasts for life, most experts recommend waiting until 70 to claim benefits (when possible) to maximize this monthly income.
Unfortunately, you don’t have that opportunity if you are getting spousal benefits.
When should you claim Social Security spousal benefits?
While you can’t increase Social Security spousal benefits by waiting to claim them beyond FRA, you can decrease them if you claim early ahead of your FRA.
As a result, it makes sense for most people to claim their spousal benefits at their full retirement age. The table below shows when that is, based on when you were born.
| Birth Year | Full Retirement Age |
| 1943-54 | 66 |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1960 | 67 |
If you claim at exactly this age, you will get benefits equal to 50% of your spouse’s primary insurance amount.
Is there any reason to delay claiming spousal benefits until after FRA?
While you can’t increase Social Security spousal benefits by delaying them until after your full retirement age, there may be times when it does make sense to wait to claim. In fact, there may be times when you have to delay.
You can’t get your spousal benefits until your higher-earning spouse has claimed their retirement benefits. And your spouse may want to claim their benefits as late as possible (and ideally at 70), because:
- Doing so would increase their own larger benefit since they can earn delayed retirement credits.
- Since you get to keep the highest benefit coming into your household as survivor benefits when your spouse dies, you can also increase survivor benefits if your spouse delays.
Depending on your age relative to your spouse’s, you may have to wait to claim your spousal benefits until after your FRA to enable your husband or wife to wait to claim their own retirement checks.
If you’re eligible, you can claim your own retirement benefits in the meantime, then switch to spousal benefits when the time is right.