How To Maximize Your Social Security Benefits If You’re Married

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Everyone who qualifies for Social Security retirement benefits should strategize to ensure the highest possible payout, but it’s especially important for married couples. Not only can the rules get complicated for married couples, but many depend heavily on Social Security benefits to fund their golden years.

For most couples, Social Security provides more than half of their total retirement income, Forbes reported — and often much more. For these couples, maximizing their Social Security benefits takes on much greater urgency.

In case you need a refresher: Spousal benefits offered by the Social Security Administration are designed to ensure that spouses who didn’t work jobs that paid into the system still get access to benefits their partner earned. The nonworking spouse can claim up to 50% of their spouse’s retirement benefits.

Spouses qualify for Social Security spousal benefits if they are at least 62 years old and both spouses have filed for Social Security or the spouse has a qualifying child in their care. The SSA defines a qualifying child as one who is under age 16 or who has a disability and is entitled to receive benefits on the spouse’s record.

From there, things can get tricky. As Forbes noted, there are hundreds of potential claiming strategies, depending on when each spouse starts their Social Security income. No matter which strategy you choose, your first step is to apply for spousal benefits.

If you work, you’ll receive either your benefit or the spousal benefit, whichever is greater. The working spouse will need to have claimed their benefits already for you to claim on their earnings record.

To maximize your benefits, it’s important that you don’t claim them too early. The amount a beneficiary receives from Social Security depends on both their work record and when they file. Although full retirement age is now 67 for most workers, you can file a claim to start benefits as early as age 62. However, your benefits will be permanently slashed by as much as 30%.

For example, if your full retirement benefit is $2,000 per month at age 67, filing at age 62 reduces that monthly amount to $1,400.  A spouse’s Social Security benefit is directly tied to the payout that the primary beneficiary receives. If your spouse files for benefits at age 62, your spousal benefit will be permanently reduced as well.

But you don’t want to wait too long to claim, either. For most Social Security applicants, waiting until age 70 ensures the maximum payment. However, spouses can’t take advantage of the age 70 rule because their payout is capped at 50% of the primary beneficiary’s full retirement benefit. Even if your spouse waited until age 70 to collect Social Security, your maximum benefit would remain at 50% of the primary beneficiary’s FRA benefit amount.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age rises to $3,822 in 2024 from $3,627 in 2023. If you reach age 62 in 2024 and start Social Security benefits, your maximum monthly benefit would be $2,710, according to Forbes. If you reach age 70 in 2024 and start Social Security benefits, your maximum monthly benefit would be $4,873.

Georgina Tzanetos contributed to the reporting for this article.

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