actual spousal benefit quite different than i thought

[mathjak107]

my wife filed for her benefit at 62. she is 2 years older than me .

i recently filed for my benefit at 65 so up until now she has gotten no spousal adder . she is now 67 .

using the ss calculator for spousal or the charts we believed she got a reduction on the spousal benefit for filing early .

on the ss website there really is nothing explained as far as what happens if she filed early but by the time the actual spousal kicks in she is fra .

using the chart ,we assumed because she filed for her benefit at 62 she would get 30% off 1/2 my full as a total benefit .

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/quickcalc/earlyretire.html.

well we got the ss verification letter yesterday for her spousal benefit .

it seems that because she is first getting spousal at fra or older ,even though she filed at 62 the calculation is very different . there is no chart or calculator .

they took 1/2 my full , subtracted her full and added the difference to her early benefit .

had she not been at least fra when spousal kicked in because i filed she would have been reduced as per the chart's schedule . but because she got no spousal adder yet because i didn't file and she reached fra the reduction on the spousal goes away . she is only penalized on her own early benefit but no further reduction on the spousal side . had she been under fra and i filed she would have had a spousal cut too

so it ended up being more than we anticipated .

there really is no chart , calculator or explanation on the ss spousal benefit page for this .

it was a pleasant surprise to see in the letter that she is getting 313 more a month added to her early benefit instead of the 150 or so we came up with using the chart and calculator on the site .

so that throws another decision in to the mix for those with similar situations since a spouse can take their own benefit at 62 . be deemed filing for spousal ,yet because the other spouse has not filed yet the spousal benefit keeps getting larger as the reduction on the spousal side shrinks , all the while they are collecting an early benefit check ..

[Tadpole]

You know, it makes sense. The system is set up so that the rules for the non-working spouse kind of seem unfair to the working spouse when compared to the rules for two workers. In your case the non-working spouse would have gotten 1/2 and wouldn't be able to file for her/his benefits based on her/his own work since they didn't work. I think the government set up the rules with sensitivity to the fact that the one worker household could end up with better benefits than the two worker household if they didn't at least make the two cases add to an equal benefit.


That said, I think it would ease your mind if you could find an actual statement of your particular case because I thought what you originally thought. If someone does find an actual statement of this particular spousal claiming case, I hope they bring us a link.

[sturbridge]

I thought this benefit was recently discontinued (as in last year). Were you somehow grandfathered in?

[mathjak107]

nooooooooooo . file and suspend was done away with ,certainly not spousal .

you are just deemed filing for spousal and your own benefit as soon as you are eligible to collect . that means as soon as your spouse files .

this has nothing to do with one spouse filing against the other's record and letting their own grow .

it is the opposite , it is taking your benefit early and having the other spouse not file . that keeps their own benefit growing as well as the spousal reduction shrinking .

[mathjak107]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tadpole You know, it makes sense. The system is set up so that the rules for the non-working spouse kind of seem unfair to the working spouse when compared to the rules for two workers. In your case the non-working spouse would have gotten 1/2 and wouldn't be able to file for her/his benefits based on her/his own work since they didn't work. I think the government set up the rules with sensitivity to the fact that the one worker household could end up with better benefits than the two worker household if they didn't at least make the two cases add to an equal benefit. That said, I think it would ease your mind if you could find an actual statement of your particular case because I thought what you originally thought. If someone does find an actual statement of this particular spousal claiming case, I hope they bring us a link.

an exact example of what i found is in kiplingers . i found no examples of this situation on the ss website . but now that we got the actual verification letter for the spousal we can see how they calculate it and it matches kiplingers example .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kiplingers

By waiting until her full retirement age to switch to a spousal benefit, she'll do better. Say Mary took Social Security at age 62. By claiming early, her full retirement benefit of $1,100 was reduced to $825. Once John claims his full retirement benefit of $2,500, Mary will be eligible for a spousal benefit.

If Mary is full retirement age when she switches to the spousal benefit, her own portion will remain at $825. But she will get the full spousal portion of $150 -- the difference between $1,250 (half of John's full benefit) and her full benefit of $1,100. Her total benefit: $975. If, instead, she claims her spousal benefit before she turns full retirement age, she would get less than $975 because the spousal portion will also be reduced.



Maximize the Social Security Spousal Benefit

[TrvlBug]

Ours is similar. I filed at 62 at which time DH, age 69, filed restricted for spousal bens. We assumed he'd receive 1/2 of my amount at 62. Surprise, he rec'd 1/2 of my FRA amount .

[mathjak107]

spousal is always based on a primary insurance amount regardless , not what the other person receives

[pb4uski]

mathjak,

I'm having trouble following your post... can you provide a numerical example with made up numbers if you prefer? My urstanding was consistent with the Kiplinger's example, but it seems that you are saying that in your case it was something different.

[mathjak107]

no ,we agree with kiplingers exactly . only difference is my amount on the pia was more than the example but it is identical math .

we thought that because she took ss at 62 she would get 1/2 my fra less 30% as the ss chart shows for age 62 spousal .

that chart is only if the spouse actually will be getting a spousal check pre fra and not just deemed filed for spousal fra but no spousal benefit actually paid yet ..

[Tadpole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathjak107 an exact example of what i found is in kiplingers ... Maximize the Social Security Spousal Benefit

Thanks, I went back and rechecked my husband's benefit and this did not change the amount he can collect but it's good to know that this is the way it works.