Millions of seniors today count on Social Security as an important source of income. In fact, for some seniors, it's their only source of retirement income.
But before you assume you'll be able to get benefits once you're ready to retire, you should know that you need to earn your Social Security income by paying into the system throughout your career. And if you don't work long enough or earn enough money, you may not be entitled to benefits later in life.
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What it takes to qualify for Social Security
To collect Social Security in retirement, you must accrue 40 work credits in your lifetime. To attain one credit, you must earn a certain amount of money, the amount of which changes every year, and pay Social Security taxes on that income.
This year, it takes $1,640 of income to earn a single Social Security credit. Last year, you only needed $1,510. Next year, it's likely that you'll need to earn more per credit.
Either way, you can only earn up to four work credits in a single year. At that pace, it would take a minimum of 10 years in the labor force to qualify for Social Security benefits in retirement, assuming your earnings are high enough.
If you're someone who works full-time and reports all your earnings, snagging your four Social Security credits per year should be doable -- even if you only earn the federal minimum wage. It's part-time workers who may need to be more cognizant about making sure they're earning enough to get their Social Security credits year after year.
What if you never work at all?
Even if you never earn a dollar of income in your lifetime, you might still end up being eligible for Social Security. That's because the program will pay benefits to the spouses and ex-spouses of people who qualify for benefits.
So, let's say you're married to someone who's eligible for benefits based on their own work history, but you only earned 12 work credits in your lifetime and therefore can't get a monthly benefit of your own. In that case, once your spouse files for Social Security, you'll generally be entitled to a spousal benefit worth up to 50% of what your spouse collects each month.
In other words, if your spouse is eligible for $2,000 a month from Social Security, and you wait until your full retirement age to claim a spousal benefit, you'll get $1,000 a month. That's not such a bad deal if you're someone who never worked and paid into Social Security in the first place.
Social Security doesn't give benefits out to just anyone, so don't automatically assume that you're in line for a monthly retirement payday if you don't have a very robust work history. On the other hand, having no work history doesn't automatically mean that you won't be eligible for benefits, either. It's a good idea to read up on the program's rules and see what your options look like.
