Another Social Security Question

[gbstack]

I plan on waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Can my spouse claim her Social Security at full retirement age and switch to the 50% spousal benefit when I claim at age 70.

 

[Rustic23]

Not sure, but I think so. However, she does not get half of what you will get at 70. If your full attainment age is, say 67, then she gets half of what you would get at 67. If you pass away after collecting at 70, her payment would then bump up to your SS at age 70.

 

[Debinnov a]

I
was under the impression that under the new changes (unless grandfathered in), that you can't file for your own and then switch to spousal any longer? As long as you are full retirement age, you can file and get the equivalent of 1/2 of your spouses full retirement amount, but only if he has already filed. Is this correct?

Sent from my KFTHWA using Tapatalk HD

 

[N02L84ER]

If 50% of the spouse A FRA amount is greater than the spouse B's own FRA amount, I believe they will automatically bump up B's amount when spouse A files. Just like they automatically bump up for survivor benefits when spouse A dies. If it didn't happen automatically, I would contact the SS office.
Spouse B can no longer suspend their amount to allow the 8% annual bump while collecting the spousal bump amount (unless grandfathered in).

 

[mathjak107]

I plan on waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Can my spouse claim her Social Security at full retirement age and switch to the 50% spousal benefit when I claim at age 70.

no , what she gets is her own and then if 1/2 your full is more then her full she gets the difference added to her own .

 

[pb4uski]

I plan on waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Can my spouse claim her Social Security at full retirement age and switch to the 50% spousal benefit when I claim at age 70.

Yes, that is what we will do. DW is slightly older then me. Our current plan is to have her file at her FRA and collect benefits based on her own work record. Then when I file at age 70 her benefit will be bumped up to 50% of my FRA benefit.

Note that the 50% is 50% of your FRA benefit, not 50% of your age 70 benefit with delayed retirement credits. Also, if she claims before her FRA then her benefit is permanently discounted (unless you die first in which case she starts receiving your benefit amount).

 

[mathjak107]

except the key word is SWITCH .

op can't switch to as they were asking , they can only get an adder to their original benefit .

in our case our plan is a little more complex .

my wife was collecting her early benefit from 62 , she will be fra this year and will stop her benefit leaving it to grow .

at 70 she will resume and i will be 67-10 months so i will file for restricted application and get 1/2 hers until i am 70 .

once i file at 70 she will get about 4200.00 added to her benefit since 1/2 mine is more then her full

 

[Senator]

I plan on waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Can my spouse claim her Social Security at full retirement age and switch to the 50% spousal benefit when I claim at age 70.

That is my plan too. I will likely get married at that point too (or else the SS plan would not work as well).

By that time, after ~40 years of being together. It will make for a ~$1,000 per month increase, at today's dollars. Plus, she is 12 years younger, so she should be able to collect for a longer time.

 

[pb4uski]

except the key word is SWITCH .

op can't switch to as they were asking , they can only get an adder to their original benefit . .....

You're being too literal. The impact is that the spouse's benefit increases from the benefit based on their work record to 50 % of their spouse's benefit once the spouse files