In my divorce, I was give the now ex-husband's Social Security. When he retired. He has been collecting it, and refused to give the money to me. He tells me if I want it have Social Security give it to you. Social Security tells me that they do not have to give me the money even if it is court order. In short the girl told me the Social Security does not have to do what is court ordered. She told me that he has to give it to me. Well I went back to the lawyer that was my lawyer and he said that I can take him back to court, but if I was to retain him it would cost me $2400 to take him back to court. So now I am going to be on the Street with just my SS and SSI to a total of $981 but I should have just under $2000 a month. Can you help?

Hi. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if the agreement in your divorce settlement can be enforced on your ex-husband. What I can tell you, though, is that Social Security law does not allow people to bargain away their rights to Social Security benefits in a divorce settlement. Therefore, regardless of what your court order says, any Social Security benefits for which your ex-husband qualifies would be paid to him, not to you.

If you had an agreement with your ex-spouse for him to give you all of his Social Security benefits, that agreement can't be enforced by the Social Security Administration. You would have to collect any money that he owes you directly from him.

There isn't enough information in your question for me to know if you might be eligible for divorced spousal benefits from your husband's account, which is a totally separate issue. The requirements for divorced spousal benefits can be found in the following section of Social Security's handbook: https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.03/handbook-0311.html.

Best, Jerry