Have you ever heard about spousal Social Security benefits? In 2025 and as an American, if you have a spouse or ex-spouse you could receive a bit more money than you were expecting.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has many ways for American citizens to access all the different benefits. So, if you are part of the retiree spousal category, you would be curious about this.
Social Security in retirement
American people should be aware of all the different benefits they can enjoy from the SSA as there are many groups who can be helped thanks to these types of public services. So, depending on your circumstance you could apply for benefits on: retirement, disability, survivor, family, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and medicare.
Here, we will tackle the retirement benefits focusing on the spousal Social Security ones. Social Security in retirement is a monthly check that substitutes part of your income when you reduce hours or stop working. Now, let’s check what the points for applying for the benefits are.
Requirements
Now, you can check if you are eligible for making use of this benefit:
- Your current spouse must have applied for their retirement benefits, but not your ex-spouse.
- You need to be 62 years old or older. This is not necessary in case you are in charge of an under 16 or if the child has a disability.
- you haven’t worked enough to obtain your retirement benefits or your spouse’s benefit is higher than yours.
Let’s talk about amount
You could get 50% of your spouse’ benefits, that means, you would obtain half of the amount your spouse earns once reaching their full retirement age (FRA) – which varies depending on your birth year. For example, if your spouse is eligible to receive $2,000 per month at the FRA, you could get $1,000 per month. This will stay the same (50%) if your spouse wants to retire later the full retirement age, there will be no rising or lowering in the percentage.
On the other hand, if you decide to start receiving your spousal benefits before the FRA, your monthly benefit will be reduced forever. Taking the previous example, if you decide to do this second option, instead of getting $1,000 per month, you would maybe receive $800 per month. This amount will not change once you reach your full retirement age.
Are you ‘deemed filing’?
The concept of ‘deemed filing’ refers to the citizens who have the right to apply for two benefits – your own benefit and the spousal one – so you would need to apply for both. In this situation, Social Security will provide you with the highest amount from the two benefits.
No divorced benefits?
Not at all! Being divorced does not mean getting no benefits. You could apply for your ex-spouse’s benefits according to the following points:
- Being married to your ex-spouse for at least 10 years.
- You must be single now.
- You need to be at least 62 years old.
- Your ex-spouse has to receive the Social Security benefits or reach the FRA. Even though they have not been acclaimed yet.
Get More Information
If you are interested in this benefit, you could do an estimation of what your number would be. You need to create your personal my Social Security account to have access to request a replacement of your Social Security card, check the status of an application, estimate your future benefits or even manage the benefits you have already received.
You have all the tools on the Social Security Administration website and you can activate online notifications, which is much quicker than waiting for the mail to arrive. You have everything by clicking here: my Social Security | SSA
