Women who have a smaller Social Security benefit than their husbands have frequently asked me if they can take their own reduced retirement benefits at 62 and then, at full retirement age, switch to a full spousal benefit from their husbands.
The answer is almost always no. But that’s assuming the husband is already getting his own Social Security at the time the wife reaches age 62. In that scenario, Social Security’s “deemed filing rule” says a wife must file for both her own benefits and any spousal benefits she might be due at the same time.
However, there are situations when a wife can take reduced retirement benefits on her record and then later switch to higher benefits on her husband’s account. This almost always happens when the husband files for benefits years after the wife files for her own.
Conversely, other women ask me if they can take reduced spousal benefits at 62 and, at 67, switch to their full retirement age benefit. The answer to that question is always no. Here are some questions and answers that deal with those issues.
I'll explain why your wife might be right with examples. You didn’t give me any benefit amounts, so I will make up some numbers. Let’s say your wife’s full retirement age benefit rate is $1,000. Filing at age 62, she would get 70 percent of that, or $700 per month. Furthermore, let’s say your full retirement age benefit at 67 will be $2,800.
We'll follow your advice first. That would mean your wife does nothing now. In six years, when you turn 67, you will start getting $2,800 per month. Then your wife would file for spousal benefits, and she would get 50 percent of your benefit, or $1,400 per month. (Actually, she would be paid her own $1,000 retirement check, and then she would get $400 in spousal benefits to take her up to the $1,400 spousal rate.)
Now look at what your wife wants to do. She wants to file for her benefits now, meaning she would start getting $700 per month right away. Then, in six years, when you turn 67 and file for your benefits, she still could file for spousal benefits. The reduction she took in her own retirement checks would carry over to her spousal rate. Here’s roughly how they would figure out what she would be due: They would take her FRA benefit rate of $1,000 and subtract that from one-half of your FRA rate of $2,800, or $1,400. So, $1,400 minus $1,000 leaves $400. And that would become her spousal benefit that would be added to her reduced retirement rate. She would start getting $1,100 per month in total benefits after you turned 67. ($700 plus $400 equals $1,100.)
Now, let’s compare the two scenarios. In your option, your wife would get an extra $300 per month in benefits starting six years from now. ($1,400 is $300 more than $1,100.)
But if you go with your option, which again means your wife doesn’t file for any Social Security benefits until you turn 67, she would be throwing away the $700 per month retirement check she would have been due beginning now, when she is 62. Over the next six years, she would lose $50,400 in Social Security benefits just to get that extra $300 per month when you are 67. It would take her 168 months to make up for that loss. In other words, your wife would be in her late 70s before she would come out ahead in your scenario.
