Jun
16
2011
By Guest (not verified)
My wife is older and started collecting benefits against her work record at age 62. If I start to collect early retirement benefits next year at age 62, my wife who will be 64 would qualify for spousal beneits. How would the spousal benefits be calculated under this scenerio and would she collect a higher spousal benefit if she waited to her full retirement age of 66 to collect the spousal benefit?
Receive spousal benefit or benefit based on own record
You will want to work directly with Social Security for your particular case; however, here are the basics.
The spousal benefit can be as much as half of the worker's (your) "primary insurance amount," depending on the spouse's age at retirement. If the spouse begins receiving benefits before "normal (or full) retirement age," the spouse will receive a reduced benefit.
If a spouse is eligible for a retirement benefit based on his or her own earnings, and if that benefit is higher than the spousal benefit, then Social Security pay the retirement benefit. Otherwise Social Security pay the spousal benefit.
In other words, Social Security will pay the higher benefit (spousal or her own).
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/spouse.html