hello,i have a question for you. my husband is older than i am of 7 years, he started collecting his social security benefits at age 62, i am still working and soon to be 65 years old in september and planning to retire at that time, my social security will be much higher than his, and i would like to collect payment from mine, i give up all my my rights from survival benefits from his, am i still entitled to received spousal benefits. if so when can i file and where for send the application to.
please i have another question for you as i said my husband is older by 7 years he started collecting his benefits of social security at age 62, if i am entitled to received spousal benefits will his social security amount of benefits be reduced thank you please respond through email
Hi,
I'm sorry, but we can't respond to questions by individual emails.
You can't forfeit your rights to survivor benefits, although you could choose not to apply for them. Even if you could, though, it would not have any effect on your potential entitlement to spousal benefits.
If you file for benefits prior to full retirement age (FRA), which is age 66 in your case, you'll be deemed to have filed for both spousal and retirement benefits on your own account. And, you will only receive the higher benefit, which according to you would be your own retirement benefit. What you could do instead is file for spousal benefits only at FRA, and let your own benefit rate grow until age 70. That would allow you to draw spousal benefits for 4 years, and then switch to your own account at age 70, at which point your own benefit rate would reach it's highest point. And, if you do draw spousal benefits on your husband's record, it will not cause any reduction in his benefits.
For information on how to apply for benefits, refer to the following reference from Social Security's website: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/apply-for-benefits.html. Before making any filing decisions, however, you may want to consider running the maximization software available on this website.
Best, Jerry
