I retired at 65 and began taking SS benefits at 66 (FRA for me since I was born in 1951). My wife was born in 1952 and did not have enough quarters to qualify for her own SS benefit. Accordingly, we decided to file for spousal benefits for her at age 65. The various spreadsheets I ran suggested this produced the highest lifetime benefits for us. Since my wife began taking spousal benefits, she has been working on her doctorate which involves teaching and thus W2s and paying FICA. She may soon have enough quarters to qualify for her own benefit (she is now 70). I have several questions:

1. How can we find out how many substantial income quarters she has? Her lifetime earnings statement does not show it.

2. Will she be able to cancel spousal befits and file for her own benefit, if it turns out her own benefit is larger?

3. If she does this, will it preclude her ability to file for widow’s benefits later on, if her widow’s benefit would be larger than her own SS benefit.

Thanks, Larry

Hi. Your wife can probably find out how many quarters of coverage (QC) she has online by establishing a my Social Security account (https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/). The benefit statements requested there should show at least an approximate number of QCs. Your wife's online earnings history might not yet show her 2021 earnings, though, in which case you'd need to calculate those yourself (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/QC.html).

If your wife can't get an answer online, she could try calling Social Security. Or, if your wife has access to her Social Security covered earnings history, she could use or software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to calculate the number of QCs she has and get an accurate estimate of her benefit rate.

Your wife can't 'cancel' spousal benefits, but if she applies for Social Security retirement benefits and if her own benefit rate is higher than her spousal rate, Social Security will terminate her spousal benefits and pay her retirement benefits instead.

If your wife starts drawing her own retirement benefits it won't prevent her from claiming widow's benefits if you die before her. In that case, she would be eligible for the higher of your full benefit amount or her own benefit rate.

Best, Jerry