Can a spouse collect on her husband's social security if she reaches retirement age before her husband? No. In order for a wife to collect Social Security benefits on her husband's earnings several requirements must be satisfied:

1. The wife is required to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible for benefits, hence he should also be at least age 62. In addition, the husband needs to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits in order for his wife to collect based on his income. The husband can then choose to postpone receiving benefits. This strategy is called "file and suspend".

To give you an example, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 59, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her income, but she can not receive benefits based on her husband's earnings until he turns 62 and starts collecting his own benefits.

However, if the wife is 66 and her spouse is only 62, then the wife can begin collecting based on her husband's earnings (remember, the husband must apply for his Social Security benefits before his wife will be able to collect based on his earnings).

In both cases above, the wife can start collecting benefits calculated on her own earnings as soon as she turns 62 (assuming she has no less than 40 quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then switch to one half of her husband's benefit as soon as her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

Some points to take into account before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit based on her husband's income when she attains full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll receive 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). However, if she starts receiving benefits at age 62, her benefit will only be 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't help the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits don't include delayed credits. In addition, it does not help the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not receive any boost in benefits that he gets by waiting to apply.

When a spouse reaches full retirement age and is qualified to apply for the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and delay receiving her own benefit in order to build up delayed credits on her own benefit.

A person can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's earnings so long as you were married for not less than 10 years and you are at this time unmarried. In case you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the criteria for spousal benefits, you will receive the largest benefit you qualify for. One advantage that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse doesn't need to wait for a former husband to start collecting benefits as long as the couple has been divorced not less than 2 yrs when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement system is gender neutral, so despite the fact that this article has assumed that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than her husband, the husband can apply for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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