I started receiving SS when I turned 70. My current monthly benefit, without deductions, is $3425.50. My wife and I decided she would file at age 62 rather that waiting until her FRA which is 66 years 6 months. Had she waited until her FRA to file, her benefit would have been $1226 ,based on her work record.

When she filed last month the SSA office calculated her benefit as $894.10 on her work record and $48.50 as a wife. For a total of $942. Which she will start receiving in October.

I thought a spousal benefit would be 32.5% of my benefit, $1113.

Did the SSA office make an error or am I misinformed?

Thanks

Hi,

It looks like Social Security's figures are spot on in your wife's case, so you must have been misinformed. Unreduced spousal benefits are calculated based on 50% of the worker's primary insurance amount (PIA), not the worker's benefit rate. A person's PIA is equal to the amount they would be paid if they start drawing their Social Security retirement benefits at their full retirement age (FRA). And, if the spouse applying for spousal benefits is entitled to their own Social Security retirement benefits, then their unreduced spousal rate is calculated by subtracting their own PIA from 50% of the worker's PIA.

Here's how the math works in your case. If your FRA is 66 and you started drawing your benefits at age 70, then your benefit rate should be 32% higher than your PIA. So, if your age 70 rate is $3425.50, then your PIA must be roughly $2595.10 (i.e. $3425.5/1.32). Your wife's unreduced spousal benefit rate would thus be calculated by subtracting her PIA of $1226 from $1297.50 (i.e. $2595.10/2). Therefore, if your wife had waited until FRA to file, she would have been eligible for her own full PIA of $1226 plus a spousal rate of $71.50 (i.e. $1297.50 - $1226).

Unless your wife was born on the 1st or 2nd day of a month her earliest possible month of eligibility would be the month following the month she reached age 62 (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300202010). If that's when she claimed benefits and if she was born in 1957, then her retirement benefit rate would be reduced by slightly more than 27% and her spousal rate would be reduced by a little more than 32%. In your wife's case, that results in a reduced retirement rate of roughly $894 and a spousal rate of $48.50, or a combined amount after rounding of $942.

The good news is that since you waited until age 70 to start drawing your benefits, if you die before your wife and she is at least FRA and the time of your death then she'd receive your full age 70 rate as a widow. She wouldn't get your full rate plus her own benefit rate, though, just the higher of the two.

Best, Jerry