Social Security Spousal Benefits: How Much Can You Get?
A Social Security spousal benefit can be up to half of your spouse’s benefit at full retirement age, their primary insurance amount (PIA). You get the full 50% only if you start at your own full retirement age or have your spouse’s young or disabled child in your care. Starting at 62 can cut it to as little as 32.5% of your spouse’s PIA. If you also earned a retirement benefit of your own, Social Security pays your own benefit first and adds a spousal amount only if half of your spouse’s PIA is larger.
To qualify, you must have been married at least a year, unless you’re the parents of a child together, be 62 or older or caring for your spouse’s child under 16 or disabled, and your spouse must already be getting retirement or disability benefits. The calculator applies Social Security’s own reduction rates to your numbers.
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Spousal Benefit Calculator
Uses Social Security’s own reduction rates, the excess spousal rule and deemed filing.
How the spousal benefit is figured
The starting point is half of your spouse’s primary insurance amount: the benefit they would get at their full retirement age, shown on their Social Security statement. It is not half of what your spouse actually receives. If your spouse claimed early at 62 and gets a reduced check, your spousal benefit is still figured from their full amount. If your spouse delays to 70 and earns delayed retirement credits, those credits raise their own check but not your spousal benefit.
From that 50%, Social Security subtracts any reduction for starting before your full retirement age. Social Security’s actuaries give this example on their Benefits for Spouses page: with a worker’s PIA of $1,600, the base spousal benefit is $800. A spouse who starts 36 months before full retirement age has it reduced by 25%, to $600, which is 37.5% of the worker’s PIA.
If you have your own retirement benefit
Most spouses today have some work history of their own. When you qualify for both, Social Security pays your own retirement benefit and, if half of your spouse’s PIA is higher than your own PIA, adds the difference as an “excess” spousal amount. Each part is reduced separately for your age. You never receive both benefits in full; the most you get is the larger of the two.
Here is how that works with a spouse’s PIA of $2,400 and your own PIA of $700, if you start at 62 and your full retirement age is 67:
| Step | At 62 | At 67 |
|---|---|---|
| Half of spouse’s PIA | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Excess spousal amount ($1,200 minus your $700) | $500 | $500 |
| Excess after age reduction | $325 (35% less) | $500 |
| Your own benefit after age reduction | $490 (30% less) | $700 |
| Total each month | $815 | $1,200 |
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Starting at 62 instead of 67 costs $385 a month for life in this example. That is why many people who see a spousal benefit below 50% find that the cause is their own early claim, not a mistake. If your own PIA is at least half of your spouse’s, there is no spousal benefit: you simply get your own.
Under the deemed filing rule, if you were born on or after January 2, 1954, and qualify for both benefits, applying for one means you’re applying for both. You can’t take your spousal benefit now and let your own benefit grow until 70.
How much starting early reduces it
A spousal benefit is reduced 25/36 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before your full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% for each additional month. Your own retirement benefit uses slightly different rates: 5/9 of 1% for the first 36 months and 5/12 of 1% after that. Social Security’s age reduction chart shows the result at 62:
| Year of birth | Full retirement age | Spousal benefit reduced at 62 by | Own benefit reduced at 62 by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months | 30.83% | 25.83% |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months | 31.67% | 26.67% |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months | 32.50% | 27.50% |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months | 33.33% | 28.33% |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months | 34.17% | 29.17% |
| 1960 or later | 67 | 35.00% | 30.00% |
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If you were born on January 1, use the previous year. The spousal reduction is applied after the 50% step, so a 35% reduction leaves 32.5% of your spouse’s PIA.
Waiting past full retirement age doesn’t increase a spousal benefit. Only your own retirement benefit earns delayed retirement credits, 2/3 of 1% for each month you wait up to age 70. Because of deemed filing, delaying makes sense for a spouse only when their own benefit is the larger part of the total.
The child-in-care exception
If you’re caring for your spouse’s child who is under 16 or disabled and receiving child’s benefits, your spousal benefit isn’t reduced for age, and you can receive it before 62. If you also take your own reduced retirement benefit, Social Security pays the difference between the full spousal benefit and your reduced own benefit, so the total equals the full 50%. In the example above, that would be your $490 own benefit plus $710, a total of $1,200. Benefits for children and other family members are paid on the same record.
A family maximum caps the total paid on one worker’s record. When a spouse and children collect together, their benefits may be lowered to stay under it. Benefits paid to an ex-spouse don’t count toward the family maximum.
When your spouse hasn’t filed yet
A current spouse can’t receive spousal benefits until the worker is receiving retirement or disability benefits. If your spouse plans to wait, the spousal benefit waits too, though your own retirement benefit can start on its own schedule.
If you start your own benefit first, you don’t have to file again later. Under the filing rules, you’re treated as applying for the spousal benefit as soon as your spouse becomes entitled, and the top-up is reduced for your age in that month if you’re still under full retirement age. Deemed filing doesn’t apply to a spousal benefit you get because you’re caring for your spouse’s child.
If your spouse starts benefits and later suspends them after full retirement age to earn delayed credits, your spousal benefit stops too for those months. Only a divorced spouse keeps getting paid.
When your spouse is still working
Your spouse can be working and still receiving benefits, so a job doesn’t stop you from collecting. But if your spouse is under full retirement age and earns over the earnings limit, the withholding applies to the whole family: Social Security holds back your spousal checks along with theirs. Your own wages work the other way. If you work before your full retirement age, your earnings reduce only your own benefits, never your spouse’s.
A divorced spouse is treated differently. You can collect on an ex-spouse’s record even if they haven’t applied, if:
- you were married at least 10 years,
- you have been divorced at least 2 years,
- you are unmarried, and
- you and your ex-spouse are both at least 62.
Benefits paid to you as an ex-spouse don’t count toward your ex-spouse’s family maximum, so they don’t lower what their current family receives.
Other things that can change the amount
- Working before full retirement age: the earnings test withholds $1 for every $2 above $24,480 in 2026 and $25,560 in 2027.
- Government pensions: the Government Pension Offset, which used to cut spousal benefits for people with a pension from work not covered by Social Security, ended under the Social Security Fairness Act for benefits payable from January 2024. If you never applied for spousal benefits because the offset would have wiped them out, you may need to apply now, and the application date can affect when benefits start.
- Cost-of-living increases: your spousal benefit rises with each year’s COLA, 3.6% for 2027.
- Your spouse’s death: a spousal benefit becomes a survivor benefit, which can be up to 100% of your spouse’s benefit.
- Medicare: at 65 you can get premium-free Part A based on your spouse’s work record if you didn’t work long enough yourself.
How to apply
You can apply for retirement benefits online, by phone at 1-800-772-1213, or at a local office. The application covers your own retirement benefit and the spousal benefit together. Social Security’s Form SSA-2 lists the information it asks for, including your marriage and, for a divorced spouse, divorce dates. For an official estimate of your spouse’s PIA, they can check their statement in their own account.