My husband reached FRA 66 in May of this year (born May 1953). I turn 66 FRA (born July 1954) next year. I purchased Maxifi and have been putting in info. The report seems to suggest my husband file spousal benefits next year when I file for my SS. I thought that spousal benefits were a thing of the past with law passed in 2016. I am confused as to what actually that means. Is that 50% of my benefit? If correct, would he then not be able to change that and file for this full retirement benefit till age 70? Some of the questions on your website seem to say that he would be penalized if he filed earlier than 70 for his after after having filed for a spousal benefit. So, to clarify my question, would he file and suspend his own, then file for spousal benefit - only to be able to draw his full amount at age 70?

Hi,

I answer general Social Security questions submitted to this forum, but I don't have access to the our customer's data or their software results. Active customers should submit their questions using an online contact form available on the help menu so that their questions can be answered by one of our experts with access to their data.

What I can tell you is that people born prior to January 2 1954, like you husband, still have the ability to file for spousal benefits only at full retirement age (FRA) or later without being deemed to have applied for their own benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/deemedfaq.html). However, you would have to be drawing your Social Security retirement or disability benefits in order for your husband to qualify for spousal benefits.

If your husband does file for spousal benefits only at FRA or later, he would be eligible for 50% of your primary insurance amount (PIA). A person's PIA is the amount of their Social Security retirement benefit if they start drawing at FRA. Filing for spousal benefits would not prevent your husband from later filing for his own retirement benefits, nor would it have any adverse effect on his own retirement benefit rate. Your husband would be free to file for his own retirement benefits at any time, but he would then be paid only the higher of his own benefit rate or his spousal rate. If he waits until age 70 to file for his own benefits his retirement benefit rate will be 32% higher than his FRA rate (PIA), but if he starts drawing his own benefits prior to age 70 then he wouldn't get the full 32% increase. For example, if he filed on his own record at age 68 his retirement rate would only be 16% higher than his PIA.

If your husband does want to file for spousal benefits at FRA or later, it's critically important that he DOES NOT file for and suspend his own Social Security retirement benefits. Doing that would prevent him from being able to draw spousal benefits. What he would instead do is apply just for spousal benefits only by restricting his own retirement benefits from the scope of his application. If your husband files for spousal benefits online there is a question on the application that asks 'If you are eligible for both retirement benefits and spouse's benefits, do you want to delay receipt of retirement benefits?' Your husband would answer that question 'yes' to restrict the scope of his application to spousal benefits only. If your husband files by phone or in person at a Social Security office, then a Social Security representative will complete the application for him. Your husband would then need to tell the representative that he wants to restrict the scope of his application to spousal benefits only, and be sure to review his copy of the application to make sure that a statement restricting the application's scope is included on the application.

Best, Jerry