If I take early retirement SS payment of $1800/month. Can my spouse who is also 63 take early retirement payments on my record? If so how , how much will she get?

Thanks

Hi,

Your wife may be able to get spousal benefits when you start drawing, but if she files prior to full retirement age she'll be deemed to have also applied for her own retirement benefits. And, she'll only get roughly the higher of the 2 benefits.

Unreduced spousal benefits start at 50% of the worker's full retirement age benefit rate. So, let's say your wife is not eligible for benefits on her own record, and you both apply for benefits at age 63. If $1800 is your age 63 rate, then your full retirement age rate would be around $2250. Therefore, your wife's unreduced spousal benefit if she waited until age 66 to file would be about $1125. If she starts right at age 63 instead, her monthly rate would be reduced to around $843. The reason that her reduced rate would be less than 50% of your reduced rate is due to the fact that a higher reduction factor applies to early spousal benefits.

Remember, the amounts above are only estimates based on the information given in your question. If you and your wife are currently age 63, you were both grandfathered under the new law on deeming (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/deemedfaq.html). Therefore, if your wife is insured for benefits on her own record, you would still have the option of filing just for spousal benefits on her record at age 66, and then switching to your own account at age 70.

You may wish to run the maximization software available on this website for a full analysis of all of your filing options.

Best, Jerry