Child benefits vs Child-in-care spouse benefits. I just applied for retirement benefits as I'm turning 62 this summer. We have triplet 11 year old kids. Today I visited the SSA office and applied for child's benefits on behalf of my kids. However your Maximize My Social Security Planner shows that my wife should file for Child-in-care spouse's benefits as well. The SSA rep stated that if my wife applies for child-in-care spouse's benefits, her share would proportionally reduce what my kids would receive. Furthermore when our kids turn age 16, the child-in-care spouse's benefits goes away, but the amount the children will receive from 16-18 years of age will not proportionally increase. Is this correct? In other words, by applying for spouse child-in-care benefits, the kids would receive a reduced child benefit, and even though the spouse child-in-care benefit expires when the kids turn 16, their reduced benefit would not increase back to what it would have if my wife had not applied for the spouse child-in-care benefit in the first place. The SSA rep made it seem like there was no reason to apply for the spouse child-in-care benefit, as it would reduce the total benefit received by our family in the long run. Is this correct?

Hi. It is true that if you have 3 children collecting benefits then their total benefit rate will be reduced proportionately by the amount of your wife's benefit rate if she applies for child in care spousal benefits. In other words, the total amount payable would remain the same, being split 4 ways instead of 3. However, if the Social Security representative told you that your children's benefit rates would not increase if and when your wife no longer qualifies for benefits, that is false. What would in fact happen in that event is that the total amount payable to your family would stay the same, with the total amount payable to your auxiliaries (i.e. wife or children) then being split 3 ways instead of 4.

Therefore, although in your case there may no advantage for your wife to apply for child in care spousal benefits, no family benefits will be lost if she does so. I should explain that although I answer questions submitted to this forum, I don't have access to our software customer's information. Software customers are encouraged to submit questions using an online contact form from the help menu. You may want to resubmit your question using the help menu so that one of our experts with access to your data can clarify whether or not it would be advisable for your wife to apply for benefits.

Best, Jerry