I understand that a person who is drawing Social Security is supposed to notify Social Security if they get married, even if neither party change their names. Is there a specific form to use for this? Both my domestic partner and I are 66 years old and drawing ex-spousal benefits while letting our own retirement benefits grow 8% a year until age 70. We plan to marry next year. I am concerned that Social Security will erroneously try to cut one or both of us off ex-spousal benefits when we marry, even though we both fall as exceptions rules under POMS RS 00202.045 Remarriage of a Divorced Spouse Policy https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300202045 . I saw an SSA-3 Marriage Certification form at https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-3.pdf listed on a Social Security forms list online at https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ but wasn't sure whether that is proper form. Should we use this form and fill in detailed explanations in the comments section? Or should we both just write letters to Social Security with explanations? I'm not convinced that any of Social Security's ordinary staffing workers would know or understand about this exception to the remarriage rule. We want to try to minimize any errors, so would prefer a paper trail over a phone call. I don't think either of us will need new Medicare cards since neither of us is changing our names and our current Medicare cards already list our ex-spouse's SS numbers on them. We would like to file the paperwork after we come back from our honeymoon since I read marriage is supposed to be reported within 10 days after month of marriage. I suspect we will also need to increase our SS withholding since we will be hit with an income tax marriage penalty. Thanks for any advice you can give us.

Hi,

Don't use an SSA-3 form. That's an internal SSA form used in lieu of a marriage certificate as proof of marriage for spousal benefits. There is no specific form used for reporting a remarriage, although you could use an SSA-795 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-795.pdf), which is a general purpose statement of claimant form.

I agree with you that most SSA employees would not be aware of the exception cited in POMS RS 00202.045, so you'll definitely want to point that out to them when you report your remarriage.

Best, Jerry