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If you qualify for benefits as a widow, widower or surviving divorced spouse on another record, you may choose to apply for survivors benefits now and delay your retirement benefit until later. If you delay receiving your retirement benefit until your full retirement age or later, your retirement benefit will be higher.
If you have reached your full retirement age,and are eligible for a spouses or ex-spouses benefit AND your own retirement benefit, you may choose to receive only spouses benefits. If you do that, you can delay receiving your own retirement benefit until a later date to take advantage of delayed retirement credits.
That is great news for me as my wife passed away last year and things are tight trying to get by my pension alone. A still have over a year to go to FRA but that is much closer.
The absolute best information that I have found is a column by Tom Margenau. I have signed up to get an email when he posts a new column. I have learned so much about reduced and widow/widowers benefits. I think someone posted about this a year or so ago. I even emailed him a question that I had about a personal SS problem and he answered within 2 days.
That doesnt make sense. I dont think you can collect spousal benefits if they are less than yours. Tho Im not sure on that.
You are seriously reducing future benefits by taking spousal benefits before full retirement age.
at fra you certainly can. i can file for 1/2 my wifes at fra and leave my own to grow even if hers is less.
at fra you have a choice and it does not matter which one is more or less.
in fact divorced people can file for spousal on each other. married folks can only get one spousal.
I've asked this question before but am still unclear about the answer. Every example I have seen assumes the couple is the same age. Well my wife is 2 years older than I am and worked only part time for a number of years. So basically her benefit is much smaller than mine but of course she can file 2 years earlier.
So my question remains this: If she elects to file and collect on her own benefit, say at early filing of 62, can she later file and take 1/2 of mine when I file at FRA of 66/10, when she will be 68, and still receive the full 1/2 of my benefit? If we do it this way she wlll get an increase over her early filing figure and of course she will have received 6 years of checks that adds up to a lot of money. This will also protect us should I find the need to file early, you never know what can happen down the road. If I file early 1/2 of that figure represents about the same as her early filing figure but she will have been receiving checks of a full 2 years.
So can we do it this way or will her benefit of 1/2 of my filing be adjusted to take into account he money she has already drawn from the system from her own earnings?
Last edited by DaveinMtAiry; 02-10-2015 at 06:21 AM..
I believe that the amount she would receive based on YOUR record would be less than 50% or yours because she filed at 62 so her benefits would be permanently reduced, also if you file before full retirement age her benefit on your account would be further reduced because your benefit would be reduced because you filed early.
Now this applies to retirement benefits, she would still be entitled to your full survivor benefit should you die first. as long as she is at least her FRA at the time.
Im not sure, and Im sure mathjak will correct me if Im wrong, but I think if you take your own early benefit, you can not change later on to a spousal benefit, unless it is a survivors benefit. Ive been looking into the same thing, and I think I finally figured that out. But I could be wrong....
Okay, I took this from the attached link:
Also, if you initiate spousal benefits before your full retirement age, you are no longer eligible to receive potentially higher benefits based on your own work record later.
Not exactly. If you take ss early based on your own work record you cannot take spousal benefits ever. It always stays your benefit and spousal benefits are not an option.
What you do get is a bump up in your own rate using a formula based on a spouses record if 1/2 theirs is higher.
If we were the same age this would be easy. But since she is older than me this is a bad situation for us huh? For her to receive one half of my FRA benefit she has to wait until she is 68 1/2. That's simply not fair as she has paid into the system, just not as much as I have. But if I die before she does she is eligible for survivor benefits once she reached her FRA, so that's a relief.
Another dumb question: Assuming I file at FRA is her survivor benefits equal to my FR figure less the amount she had been drawing all along should she file before I do?
For widows or widowers...these benefits are available at age 60......I'm not sure how long a marriage needs to be for divorced spouses to qualify...but this is something that comes as a surprise to some people and is often needed when a spouse dies.
''If you are eligible on another record, you have additional options:
If you qualify for benefits as a widow, widower or surviving divorced spouse on another record, you may choose to apply for survivors benefits now and delay your retirement benefit until later.
If you delay receiving your retirement benefit until your full retirement age or later, your retirement benefit will be higher.''
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