The Social Security benefit you’re eligible for in retirement hinges on your personal wage history. The more you earn, up to a certain point, the more money Social Security pays you each month.
If you weren’t a particularly high earner during your working years, you may not have a very generous Social Security benefit to look forward to. But if you’re married, you may be eligible for a larger monthly check than expected.
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How spousal benefits can boost your monthly Social Security payments
If you’re married, you may be entitled to collect spousal benefits from Social Security. You don’t need to have a personal work history to qualify for spousal benefits. And if you do have a work history and are eligible for Social Security benefits of your own, you can still collect spousal benefits if they’ll put more money in your pocket than your own benefits will.
Social Security’s spousal benefits max out at 50% of your spouse’s full retirement age benefit. If that number is larger than your benefit, Social Security may bump up your payments once your spouse claims benefits themself.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re eligible for $1,300 a month in Social Security and you file for benefits before your spouse. Let’s then say your spouse signs up and is eligible for $2,800 a month at full retirement age.
In this case, you’re eligible for $1,400 a month in spousal benefits as long as you’ve reached your full retirement age. If you’re collecting $1,300 a month and become eligible for the maximum spousal benefit, the Social Security Administration should start paying you $1,400 a month instead of $1,300.
To be clear, you can’t collect two sets of Social Security benefits at the same time. So, in this case, you wouldn’t be eligible for $1,300 from your own benefits plus $1,400 in spousal benefits. You’d get only the larger of the two. But that’s still a pretty good deal.
Your benefits could increase even more if your spouse passes away
Another thing you should know is that in couples where one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse is generally entitled to the larger of the two benefits. In other words, let’s say your spouse is getting $2,800 a month in Social Security and you’re getting a $1,400 monthly spousal benefit. If your spouse passes, you should then be bumped up to a $2,800 monthly benefit.
So, all told, you may end up with more money each month from Social Security than expected, even if you never earned high wages and aren’t eligible for a generous benefit based on your own income history. And it’s important to know how spousal and survivor benefits work so you can plan accordingly.