I'm going to be 62 in April and currently collect a small non government pension of $813 monthly which was reduced because I had to take it early due to my ex husband deciding to leave for someone else after 40 yrs of marriage.. I had not worked for the past 5 yrs and was not prepared for for the devastating financial loss. It was a high conflict divorce and I took a higher loss. The constant stress has wreaked havoc on my physical and mental health. I filed for disability and qualified under my physical diagnosis however I had a couple of retirement accounts that disqualified me and not enough work credits. I have very little cash left, medical bills, and $813 a month to live off of. He just turned 65 and still works. ssa said the most I would get would be $745 off of his social security income and they would not go into detail on his earnings until I turned 62. Am I getting the run around or does this make sense?

Hi. There is a privacy act that prevents Social Security employees from giving out information about a person's benefits and private information, so I imagine that's why they were hesitant to tell you much about your divorced spousal options.

What I can tell you is that whenever you apply for benefits you'll be deemed to be filing for both your own Social Security retirement benefits and for divorced spousal benefits. You can then only be paid basically the higher of the two benefit rates. Unreduced divorced spousal benefits paid on the record of a living ex spouse are calculated at 50% of the worker's primary insurance amount (PIA), but the monthly amount you'll be paid will be reduced for age if you start drawing benefits before your full retirement age (FRA).

Best, Jerry