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

1. The wife needs to be at least age 62

2. The husband will need to be eligible to receive benefits, therefore he must also be at least age 62. Also, the husband must actually sign up for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to collect based on his income. The husband can then elect to delay collecting benefits. This course of action is referred to as "file and suspend".

To provide an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 58, the wife can begin collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings, but she won't be able collect based on her husband's income until he turns 62 and starts collecting his own benefits.

On the other hand, if the wife is age 66 and the husband is 62, then the wife can start receiving calculated on her husband's earnings (remember, the husband will have to sign up for his benefits before the spouse can collect based upon his earnings).

In both cases mentioned above, the wife can begin receiving benefits based on her own income at age 62 (assuming she's got no less than 40 quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can change over to 1 / 2 of her husband's benefit when her husband qualifies for Social Security.

A couple of areas to consider before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's earnings when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for individuals retiring now), then she will collect 50% 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 does not benefit the spouse to wait until after reaching full retirement age to apply for benefits, as spousal benefits do not include delayed credits. On top of that, it does not help the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not get any increase in benefits that he receives by waiting to collect benefits.

If a spouse gets to full retirement age and is eligible for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may start collecting the spousal benefit now and postpone taking her own benefit so she can accumulate delayed credits on her own benefit.

You can collect Social Security spousal benefits calculated on an ex-spouse's earnings as long as you were married for a minimum of 10 years and you are also presently unmarried. Should you have more than one ex-spouse which you qualify pertaining to spousal benefits, you will receive the maximum benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is that a divorced spouse doesn't have to wait around for a former husband to apply for benefits as long as the pair has been divorced for at least 2 yrs when she applies.

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

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