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Love and marriage don’t always last forever. But if your matrimony lasted 10 years or more, the financial benefits can last a lifetime. That’s because you may be able to take Social Security based on your ex-spouse’s benefits instead of your own, even if you divorced decades ago.
The philosophy is that both spouses often contribute economically during the marriage, even if only one person was employed. The Social Security rules protect those who spent most of their working years raising a family or playing a supportive role to their spouse and may have no retirement savings of their own.
The Rules for Social Security After Divorce
The maximum benefit you can get based on the record of a spouse — whether you’re currently married or divorced — is 50% of their full retirement age benefit. Full retirement age is the age at which you qualify for 100% of your benefit. It’s 66 or 67, depending on when you were born.
If your ex-spouse dies before you, you’ll typically be eligible to receive survivors benefits of up to 100% of the monthly payment they were receiving, just as you could if your current spouse died.
People with a long employment record will typically qualify for a bigger benefit based on their own earnings instead of a spouse’s. Social Security will give you the bigger benefit, but not both.
If you do qualify for more money thanks to your ex-spouse, they’ll technically give you whatever benefit you earned based on your record. Then, they’ll use your ex’s record to make up the difference.
Seeking to get revenge on an ex-spouse by claiming their Social Security? Move on. Your decision won’t affect their benefits in any way, nor will it impact their current spouse if they’ve remarried. If they’ve been married multiple times, all their exes are allowed to claim on their record.
Occasionally, a divorce settlement will state that one spouse can’t collect Social Security based on the other person’s record. Such…
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