my ex and I were married for 8.7 years but lived together for almost 2 years as man and wife. we entered into the agreement to live together while he was in Montana (after her got out of the military from being stationed in California where we met) he got out of the military and went back to Montana and then decided to return to California , he called me and asked to live with me and get married. We lived together for almost 2 years before getting pregnant and then getting married in Las Vegas and returning to our home in California. We later moved to Nevada and were divorced in Nevada. My question is (I have never remarried) can I claim from his SS as being married for 10 years, also he is 9 years younger than me and I just tuned 62.

Hi,

Your ex would either need to be at least age 62 or drawing his Social Security benefits in order for divorced spousal benefits to potentially be payable. Therefore, since your ex is 9 years younger than you then the only way that you might currently qualify for benefits as a divorced spouse is if your ex is drawing Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits.

Furthermore, you would need to have been legally married for at least 10 consecutive years to be able to ever qualify for benefits as a divorced spouse. It sounds like you believe that you had a common law marriage in addition to your ceremonial marriage. Social Security follows state laws with regard to common law marriages, so if you can establish that you were legally married for at least 10 consecutive years then you may be able to qualify for divorced spousal benefits at some point in time. For more information on state laws with regard to common law marriages, refer to the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200305075.

Best, Jerry