Social Security benefits for married couples
Will benefits be reduced for married couples?
David Melton: When Social Security began, August 14th, 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt who signed the Social Security Act, a typical American family consisted of a male bread-winner and a female home-maker and children. Social Security through 1939 amendments created family benefits, recognizing that in families there are financially dependent family members (spouse, non-working, part-time working or intermittent working spouse).
In today’s world we have changed. For a lot of married couples, both husband and wife are independently insured, they each have 40 credits and earnings history. So what we do when we file is we look and see which of those benefits are higher. As a general rule, people tend to take the higher of the benefits. It’s not uncommon to see a husband receiving his check and wife receiving her check and their marriage is not really a factor of eligibility. Their benefits are not being impacted by the other. They are independently receiving their own Social Security.
B.E.S.T. BENEFIT ELIGIBILITY SCREENING TOOL
https://ssabest.benefits.gov/
If you go to www.socialsecurity.gov/BEST we will ask you a series of questions that are not personally identifiable questions, but rather questions that help us determine benefit eligibility. We ask about life experiences including date of birth, work history, marriage status, disability eligibility etc. For example, if the wife had no work history, we would like to talk to her about spousal benefits, widow benefits, etc. This tool is very useful in estimating your benefit eligibility.
Does the working spouse have to file for their Social Security in order for the non-working spouse to receive half of that benefit? What is the working spouse does not need it at the time, but the non-working spouse needs the benefit?
David Melton: That is referred to as deemed file. As a general rule, I always tell the worker “You hold the key to the door, and when you hold open the door, your family members are going to follow you in.”
As people plan and use these tools, we want people to understand that the spousal benefits are payable when the working spouse becomes entitled. That means different things for different individuals, but the wage earner has to initiate that application before those spousal benefits can be paid. There is an exception for divorced spouses, but again, go to the website to submit your own questions and use our tools. Go to our website, look at those tools and begin that journey of knowledge in understanding Social Security.
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