When can a spouse begin receiving his or her Social Security spousal benefit? A wife can start collecting Social Security spousal benefits only when the following conditions have been satisfied:

1. The wife is required to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, consequently he must also be at least age 62. Also, the husband has to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to collect based on his income. The husband can then decide to postpone collecting benefits. This course of action is called "file and suspend".

To give you an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can begin collecting benefits calculated on her earnings, but she won't be able receive benefits based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts collecting his own benefits.

On the other hand, if the wife is age 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can start collecting calculated on her husband's earnings (remember, the husband will have to submit an application for his Social Security before the spouse will be able to collect based on his income).

In both cases mentioned above, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her own income as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she has as a minimum 40 quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can switch to 1 / 2 her husband's benefit as soon as her husband qualifies for Social Security.

Several points to take into consideration before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit calculated on her husband's income when she attains full retirement age (age 66 for folks retiring now), then she'll receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts receiving benefits at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't benefit the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits don't include delayed credits. In addition, it won't help the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not get any rise in benefits that he gets by waiting to receive benefits.

When a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to apply for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting the spousal benefit now and hold off collecting her own benefit so she can accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income so long as you were married for not less than 10 years and you are also at present unmarried. Should you have more than one ex-spouse which you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you'll receive the largest benefit you qualify for. One benefit that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse won't have to wait around for a former husband to start collecting benefits as long as the couple is divorced not less than 2 yrs when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so though this article assumes that the wife is generally the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than the husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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