I cannot seem to find an answer to my specific question online, so here we are.
Herbert will delay taking SS until his Full Retirement Age, at which point he will receive $3,000/month.
Herbert’s wife, Maude, has already retired and currently receives $1,000/month SS.
When Herbert reaches FRA and retires, does Maude’s SS increase to $1,500/month?
If so, is the increase automagically applied? Or does Herbert need to notify SS of the situation?
Herbert and Maude thank you.
No. Maude doesn’t receive any increase when Herbert begins collecting his full SS benefit. If Herbert dies, Maude can apply for the survivor benefit, which is equal to the benefit Herbert received (if Maude is full retirement age). Maude will receive only the survivor benefit, not hers and Herbert’s.
I’ve made some posting mistakes recently on taxes similar stuff so I’ll tread lightly. I believe that @Fear_Itself is mistaken.
Per my notes from my research Maude is entitled to either her own actual benefit based on when she began collecting, or 50% of her spouse’s FRA benefit, whichever is greater once Herbert starts collecting his benefit. The details if one or the other claims before FRA get more complex, but for the vanilla case where both claimed at their respective FRA it’s as I described.
What I do NOT know is whether the change to Maude’s benefit is automagic or not when Herbert files for his.
Here’s some possibly useful cites:
Also this may help: Benefits for Spouses (ssa.gov) Which includes the plain language statement
If a spouse is eligible for a retirement benefit based on his or her own earnings, and if that benefit is higher than the spousal benefit, then we pay the retirement benefit. Otherwise we pay the spousal benefit.
Which supports my contention.
Reading the actual SS internal operations manual (“POM”) is like reading IRS publications, but is the no-shit answer. It’s searchable on the SSA website, but hard to find the spot you want.
I think you are confusing Survivor benefits with Spouse benefits. I think Maude does get half of Herbert’s benefit, but only when Herbert files for his benefit. If he delays until age 70, Maude doesn’t get half of his benefit until then (but does benefit from his increased payment amount).
Open Social Security is a good site to see how this all works. For a given scenario, there is a table that shows the calculated benefits.
This is correct, and is what happened with my wife’s SS money (she started collecting hers at 62) when I filed for mine. Her benefits rose to be half of mine at that time.
Qadgop, did you have to notify SS, or was it automatic?
IIRC the Mrs. was involved, but that may have been due to her wanting to make sure the increase went through. I’ll ask her if she had to sign/approve of anything. Might have gone thru automatically regardless.
To echo and affirm what others have said, I will add our personal experience.
Ms. Railer started drawing her benefit when she was 67. Let’s say she started drawing $1200 each month. I waited until I turned 70 before I started drawing my benefit. Let’s say I now draw $3200 per month.
When I started drawing, Ms. Railer received a letter from the SS telling her that her benefit would increase to $1300 each month. I immediately filed a protest, as I assumed that her benefit would increase to $1600 per month, or 50% of my benefits. But the SS responded that the most she is entitled to is 50% of my benefit at my Normal Retirement Age, which in my case was 66 1/2. That amount would have been $2600 each month, which is why her benefit is now $1300 each month.
Note that we did not have to notify SS; her new benefit was automatically assigned.
Thanks for the info, all.
mmm
I agree with everyone else that this is correct, but one quibble. Maude always gets her own benefit. She gets an increased benefit - up to 50% - when Herbert files. So $1,000 is hers and $500 comes from spousal benefits.
We did this also, but since I was under the old system where I could get spousal benefits before I got my own, we did notify Social Security.
That probably explains some of the confusion over some of the explanations found online.
They commonly say things like “Maude always gets her benefit”. Some folks then mis-interpret that as meaning “Maude always gets only her benefit and no more until Herbert dies”. Which is a wrong interpretation.