My sister is doing some financial planning, and needs to know her divorced spousal benefit dollar amount---will SSA provide her that information? She has had no contact with ex-spouse for 10 or more years, and he has legally changed his name during that period. Are there specific POMS which spell out that SSA must provide her the benefit information---it seems SSA doesn't always seem to know their own responsibilities.

Hi,

I've never been able to find any POMS (Program Operations Manual) references that give good examples of what specific information may be disclosed to a spouse or ex-spouse. There may be something definitive in there, but I've never found it. There is an entire subchapter of POMS regarding the Privacy Act and disclosures (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/subchapterlist!openview&restrictt...), but good luck finding anything useful in there. That may explain why there is so much confusion among SSA employees as to what information can be released and what cannot. Furthermore, SSA employees face severe penalties if they violate the privacy act, even inadvertently, so it's understandable that they are hesitant about giving out any questionable information.

As a former SSA employee, I can only tell you that we were trained that it is permissible to give a spouse or ex-spouse an estimate of what their benefit rate would be, if at all possible. In fact, as the following POMS section explains, SSA employees are obligated to develop leads and inquiries that they receive in order to determine if potential benefit entitlement exists: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200202020.

As long as your sister has her ex's Social Security number (SSN) she should be able to find out if and when she could qualify for divorced spousal benefits as well as the approximate rate of those benefits. Even if she doesn't have his SSN, though, if she can provide enough background information for SSA to be able to locate her ex's SSN they should be able to tell her whether or not she could be eligible for benefits from her ex's record.

Best, Jerry