For anyone not aware of them, I want to share information about spousal benefits from Social Security.
I was giving a talk recently about the difference in access to Social Security benefits between married and unmarried couples. The example I was using compared a married opposite sex couple to an unmarried same sex couple (see the chart below), explaining why the Federal recognition of marriage equality is important for the economic protection of older LGBTQ folks. But the principles apply to any unmarried couple. Although, because marriage equality is so tenuous, older same-sex couples continue to face the risk of being denied access to these benefits in the future. After my talk I spoke with an older heterosexual woman who was completely unaware of the spousal benefit. Which has me wondering how many of us don’t know about it.
So here I am.
Social Security benefits are calculated based on earnings from the 40th highest earning quarters of your work history. If you and your unmarried partner each retire at your full retirement ages (for example, my FRA is about 67), the partner with a history of lower earnings would receive a lower benefit.
In this example, which was created in 2009, the higher earning partners qualified for a monthly benefit of $1,079, and the lower-earning partners qualified for an earned benefit of $264. For the unmarried couple, this meant a combined monthly benefit of $1,343 or annually $16,116. But in the legally married couple, the lower-earning spouse would instead receive $540, half of the higher-earning spouse’s benefit, increasing their combined monthly benefit to $1,619, or annually to $19,426.
That spousal benefit does not, in any way, impact the higher earner’s benefits; doesn’t reduce their benefits. Similarly, if a couple was married 10 years or longer, and the lower-earning spouse did not remarry, they can still receive the spousal benefit based on their ex-spouse’s earnings record. Again, this does not impact the higher-earner’s benefits, nor prevent the person they are married to when they retire – if they did remarry – from receiving their spousal benefit if they were also a lower earner.
I hope that all makes sense. I will create another blog post about survivor’s benefits.
