Ask the Expert: When can wife apply for a spousal benefit?
The complexity of Social Security rules can frustrate the most intelligent online researcher. Speaking to a representative at the agency’s local office is often more productive.
Your wife will have to wait until you’re 70 to claim her spousal benefit, because she won’t qualify for that benefit until you’ve filed for Social Security.
She’ll then be 68 years old — past her FRA (66 years and 6 months) — and she’ll qualify for the maximum spousal benefit. That’s half the amount you were eligible to receive at your own FRA (66 years and two months) plus inflation adjustments.
Postponing Social Security for four years increases your FRA benefit by 32% (plus inflation adjustments) in yearly 8% delayed-retirement credits. Those credits are never added to spousal benefits. But they are included in a survivor's benefit. As a widow, your wife would receive a benefit equal to the amount you were collecting — or were eligible to collect — at your death. For example, if you died at 69 before applying for Social Security, her survivor benefit would include 24% in delayed retirement credits for the three years that had passed since you reached your FRA.
The bottom line
You can't collect a spousal benefit until your husband or wife has filed for Social Security.
