Spouses and Ex-Spouses Can Be Eligible for Benefits

If you are married or divorced and eligible for a small Social Security retirement payment — or none at all — based on your earnings history, a spousal benefit might be an option for you.

The benefit would be your own check but derived from your spouse’s or former spouse’s earnings record. How much you would get depends on when you apply and what benefit your spouse or ex qualifies for at full retirement age.

How to receive the biggest spousal benefit

A spousal benefit could be worth up to half of your spouse’s full retirement benefit, even if your spouse took a reduced amount by collecting before full retirement age. What you get will not take a piece of what your spouse is paid, no matter when your mate filed.

But you do have to check all these boxes:

• Married. At least a year.
• Social Security benefits. Your spouse must be collecting retirement or disability already.
• Full retirement age. In most cases, you must be at or above your own.

If you were born in 1958, your full retirement age is 66 and eight months. If you were born in 1959, your full retirement age is 66 and 10 months.

You’ll reach this milestone in 2025 if you were born in the last eight months of 1958, in the first two months of 1959 or on March 1, 1959. If you were born on the first of any month, Social Security calculates your benefit as if you had been born the previous month, so if you were born Jan. 1, 1959, you have a full retirement age of 66 and eight months just like people born Dec. 31, 1958.

Need to file before full retirement age? If so, your spousal benefit will be permanently reduced. If you collect at 62 this year, you’ll get 32.5 percent of your spouse’s full benefit at the least; the percentage edges up each month you wait.

The age rules have two exceptions. You can receive a spousal benefit at any age if you’re caring for a child who:

• Is younger than 16.
• Or has a disability and is entitled to receive benefits on your spouse’s record.

In both these cases, you’ll get the maximum spousal benefit — 50 percent of your partner’s full benefit amount.

Waiting until 70 won’t matter. Retirement benefits keep growing if you put off claiming them until age 70, but spousal benefits don’t work that way. You get the most you can as a spouse at full retirement age.

5 important points for spouses to keep in mind

1. Your spousal benefit, no matter its size, will not affect what your husband or wife receives.
2. Your partner’s age doesn’t matter. Your payment won’t change based on the age your spouse claims Social Security. Your payment is always based on your partner’s benefit at full retirement age.
3. You don’t need a work record. Spousal benefits are based entirely on your spouse’s earnings history. You may qualify for them even if you’ve never worked or paid Social Security taxes.
4. If you do have a work record, the Social Security Administration (SSA) takes that into account. When you apply for benefits, representatives will figure what you’re eligible to collect as both a retiree and a spouse, and you’ll get the higher of the two amounts, but not both.
5. Benefits for same-sex spouses — and ex-spouses — are the same as for any other married couple because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision recognizing marriage equality. Some registered domestic partners, same-sex partners in civil unions and participants in common-law marriages also may qualify for spouse or former spouse benefits, depending on the details of their states’ laws. You’ll have to jump through a lot more hoops with the SSA to find out, but the agency encourages you to apply even when you’re uncertain about eligibility.

Divorced? Your ex may play a part in your retirement

You may qualify for spousal benefits on your ex’s record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years and you haven’t married again. SSA generally treats the claim of a former spouse who qualifies the same as that of a current spouse:

• The payment range is the same — from 32.5 percent of your ex-spouse’s full benefit if you claim at 62 to 50 percent at your full retirement age.
• You can qualify at any age if you are caring for a child of your ex’s who is younger than 16 or has a disability.
• If your retirement benefit is bigger, you’ll get that, not the ex-spouse benefit.

Your ex won’t be aware you’ve filed or be affected

It doesn’t matter if your ex remarries, only if you do. In that case, you lose eligibility for divorced-spouse benefits. You’ll get that back if the later marriage ends because of divorce, death or annulment.

Your ex won’t be affected. Your claim won’t change your ex’s benefits or the payments for an ex’s present spouse or dependents. The SSA won’t notify your former spouse that you’ve applied for benefits on the ex’s record, and the former spouse can’t block you from getting those benefits in a divorce decree.

Your ex doesn’t need to be receiving benefits. This is a key difference from current-spouse benefits. You can get ex-spouse benefits if your former mate hasn’t filed for Social Security yet — but only if the divorce is at least 2 years old.

This story, originally published April 16, 2025, was updated with additional information.

About the author

Andy Markowitz covers Social Security and retirement for AARP. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

About the reviewer

Jammie Lyell, the Social Security program manager for AARP’s office of community, state and national affairs, previously worked at the Social Security Administration as a legal administrative specialist and technical expert. He earned a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Walden University.

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