I am turning 60 years old in Jan. and medically retired with a pension and SS Disability. My wife is 67 years old and on SS of $438 a month and medicare. She got a raise of $138 a month when I went on disability of $1630 a month.
How should I proceed? Why did she only get this $138 and not half of my SS benefit? When I go off of Disability to regular SS won't she get a much larger raise than this $138? Would it profit us for me to take early SS at age 62 so she could get the larger sum? Waiting to 65 seems like a loss of money. Please advise. Thanks.

Hi,

I would need more information to be able to give you a definite answer, but it doesn't sound likely that switching to retirement benefits at age 62 would be a winning strategy in your case. One thing I can tell you, though, is that your wife would never get a full half of your benefit amount as a spouse if she started drawing her own benefits prior to her full retirement age (FRA).

For example, say Meg files for her own retirement benefits at age 62. Meg's full retirement age rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA) would be $500, but she accepts a reduced rate of $375 in return for starting her benefits early. Meg's husband Joe becomes entitled to Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) when Meg turns 63, and Joe's PIA is $1600. Meg's unreduced spousal rate would be calculated by subtracting her PIA from 50% of Joe's PIA, which would be $300 in Meg's case (i.e. $800 - $500). However, if Meg starts drawing the spousal benefit at age 63 her spousal rate would be reduced to $225. That excess spousal benefit would then be added to Meg's own reduced retirement benefit to give her a combined benefit rate of $600 (i.e. $375 + $225).

There is an alternate formula for calculating the family maximum benefit (FMB) on SSDI records that can in some cases reduce the amount payable to eligible family members. However, since your SSDI rate (which is equal to your PIA) is over $1600, that alternate method should not be involved in your case. That means your wife's spousal rate will likely not increase when you switch from SSDI to regular Social Security retirement benefits, which would happen automatically when you reach FRA. And, if you switched to retirement benefits at age 62 instead of FRA, your benefit rate would drop by roughly 28%.

If you still believe that your wife's benefit rate is too low given the calculation method I outlined in the above example, she could file an appeal or ask Social Security to recalculate her benefit rate.

Best, Jerry