Larry, my partner, who was born in 1950, started claiming Social Security at age 62 when she separated from her husband and needed the income. Eventually, she divorced her husband and a year or so ago, was sufficiently financially secure to suspend her Social Security income with the intention of claiming it when she reaches 70. In the meantime, she would like to obtain benefits from her divorced spouse's payment record but is getting pushback from her local Social Security office. From reading the information on the SSA website, she should be entitled to these but does the fact that she started her own payments before her full retirement age affect her situation?

Hi,

Yes, once you start drawing your own Social Security retirement benefits, that becomes your primary benefit for life. If you subsequently file for another type of benefit (e.g. divorced spousal, widow's, etc.), you could only qualify for a partial additional benefit at best.

For example, say Mary files for her retirement benefits at age 62. Mary's full retirement age rate (PIA) is $800, but her reduced rate at age 62 is $600. When Mary turns full retirement age (FRA), she becomes eligible for a divorced spousal benefit. Mary's ex-spouse's PIA is $2000, so Mary's divorced spousal benefit is calculated by subtracting her PIA from 50% of her ex's PIA, or $200 (i.e. $2000/2 - $800). The $200 divorced spousal benefit is then added to Mary's reduced retirement rate of $600 to give her a combined rate of $800.

In the above example, if Mary voluntarily suspended her retirement benefits at FRA she could only be paid the $200 divorced spousal benefit if she suspended her benefits before the April 30 2016 deadline (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html). But she couldn't receive either benefit if she suspended her retirement benefits after the deadline. And, if Mary's PIA was more than 50% of her ex-spouse's PIA, she couldn't qualify for any divorced spousal benefits after filing on her own record.

So, if your partner hadn't filed for her own retirement benefits, she could have potentially filed a restricted application for divorced spousal benefits only at full retirement age and allowed her own rate to grow until age 70. But, once she started drawing her own retirement benefits it eliminated her ability to potentially draw a divorced spousal benefit only, regardless of whether or not she suspends her own benefits.

Best, Jerry