In May of 2015 I turned 66 (my wife was 69 at the time), I did a file and suspend and my wife filed for a spousal benefit. My PIA at that time was $2,438.00. In July of 2016 I received notification from the SSA that my monthly benefit has been changed to $2,568.00 starting Jan 2016. The letter said, “We made this change because you continue to earn credit for working”. They go on to explain that when you apply for benefits, they figured the benefit amount based on your earnings at that time. The truth is I have not worked since I did the file and suspend.
I have spoken to the SSA several times to ask if my wife’s spousal benefit will be increased to reflect my upward adjusted benefit. Some say yes others say no.
Do you believe my wife is due an increase to 50% of my new benefit amount?
Thanks in advance for your response.
Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Hmmm... Well, if the increase in your benefit amount was in fact due to a recomputation to include additional earnings, then your wife's benefit amount would have increased by roughly half as much as yours did. However, even if you had the maximum covered earnings in 2015 (i.e. $118,500), that would not have resulted in a $130 increase in your monthly benefit amount.

What must have happened instead is that Social Security increased your benefit amount to credit you with delayed retirement credits (DRC) for May 2015 to December 2015, and then sent you an incorrect or poorly worded notice. DRCs are credited at a rate of 2/3rds of 1% per month, so 8 months of DRCs accounts for an increase of 5.33..%, which is exactly the amount of your benefit increase (i.e. $2438 x 1.053333 = $2568).

Spousal benefits are calculated at a rate of 50% of your full retirement age benefit amount (PIA), and do not include increases for DRCs. So, this would also explain why your wife's benefit amount did not increase when yours did.

Best, Jerry