Benefit: Allows you to collect a spousal benefit while accumulating delayed retirement credits to maximize your own benefit.
Works if: You and your spouse have both reached full retirement age and your spouse has applied for benefits.
If you apply for social security benefits before full retirement age, you automatically qualify for a benefit based on your own earning’s record, or 50% of your spouse’s benefit, whichever is higher. You cannot choose which to take.
The good news: If you wait until full retirement age to apply you do have a choice. For those who plan on working past full retirement age, this presents an opportunity. When you reach full retirement age, you can apply for benefits and choose to begin collecting a spousal benefit based on your spouse’s earnings record, (or ex-spouse if you were married for at least ten years). Your own social security benefit will continue to accumulate delayed retirement credits until your age seventy.
Example: Kara, age 66, is still working. Her husband Bob is collecting social security retirement benefits. Kara applies for social security and chooses to receive her spousal benefit based on Bob’s earnings record. Kara continues to work until age 70. She collects her spousal benefit while working for the next four years; at age 70 she retires and switches to her own, now much larger, social security benefit.
