Many retired couples rely on their monthly Social Security benefits to help make ends meet. Around half of all households with someone age 65 or older receive at least 50% of their family income from Social Security, according to data compiled by the Social Security Administration. With the government program accounting for such a significant portion of household budgets, it's important for recipients to maximize what they receive from the program.
One benefit for married couples is the Social Security spousal benefit. Spousal benefits can provide a significant boost to overall household income, but they can also complicate Social Security claiming strategies. So it's important to understand how spousal benefits are calculated, when you can claim them, and what the maximum benefit could be.
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The basics of spousal benefits
Spousal benefits are available to anyone who meets the following criteria:
- They're age 62 or older.
- They've been married to their spouse for at least one year.
- Their spouse is claiming Social Security benefits on their own earnings record.
A person can bypass the first two criteria if they're caring for a child of the spouse who's younger than 17 or disabled.
The maximum spousal benefit for a given individual is equal to half their spouse's primary insurance amount. The primary insurance is what a person is eligible to claim when they reach full retirement age.
The Social Security Administration calculates a person's primary insurance amount by adding up their 35 highest-paid years of earnings, adjusted for inflation. It then takes the average earnings from those 35 years and plugs them into the Social Security benefits formula.
If you want to maximize your primary insurance amount, you need to earn above the "contribution and benefit base" set each year by the Social Security Administration for at least 35 years. For 2024, that amount is $168,600.
So to get the maximum spousal benefit possible, your partner must have earned at least as much as the contribution and benefit base for 35 years.
On top of that, you'll have to wait until you reach your own full retirement age, which will fall between 66 and 67 depending on when you were born. In 2024, people born in 1957 and 1958 will reach full retirement age at 66 years and 6 months (1957 birthdays) or 66 and 8 months (1958 birthdays). Claiming before you reach full retirement age will reduce your spousal benefit.
On the other hand, waiting to claim beyond your full retirement age doesn't provide any perks. That's a key difference between spousal benefits and personal retirement benefits, the latter of which increase every month you delay until age 70.
Getting the maximum spousal benefit in 2024
You now know that to maximize your spousal Social Security benefit, your spouse needs to have earned a very high salary for the bulk of their career, and you'll need to wait until you reach full retirement age.
With that in mind, the maximum spousal benefit for 2024 is $1,924 per month, but only a minuscule percentage of people will qualify for that amount this year (or any year).
In fact, that benefit only applies to people reaching full retirement age (or older) in 2024 who have a spouse turning 62 this year so they can also claim benefits. That's a lot of pieces to fall into place.
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The reason the maximum spousal benefit only applies to spouses of retirees turning 62 this year has to do with a quirk of how the Social Security Administration adjusts earnings for inflation and calculates the primary insurance amount. Those calculations are based on the year in which someone turns 60, so the maximum primary insurance amount changes a little bit for each group of people as they become eligible to claim Social Security.
Those turning 62 this year (born in 1962) have a maximum primary insurance amount of $3,849.10. On the other hand, someone born in 1958 will have a maximum primary insurance amount of about $3,822, and someone born in 1954 will have a maximum primary insurance amount of $3,692.
Maximizing family income
Getting the maximum spousal benefit is rarely optimal because the high-earning spouse must claim their benefits at age 62 so the low-earning spouse becomes eligible for spousal benefits.
For most couples, waiting for the high-earning spouse to reach age 70 will maximize lifetime benefits for the household. Meanwhile, the lower-earning spouse needs to determine whether they can benefit more from taking their own benefit at full retirement age and eventually switching to spousal benefits, or if they're better off waiting until age 70 to claim their own benefit. One of those options will likely help maximize their lifetime income from Social Security.
So while you might qualify for the maximum spousal benefit in 2024, a smart strategy might be to claim your personal benefit now, even if it's well below that maximum. Then, wait for your spouse to max out their benefit as well. Once your spouse claims their larger benefit, you'll be eligible for the maximum spousal benefit for your age group, which will be $1,924 plus any cost-of-living adjustments over the next eight years.
That said, everyone's situation is different. It pays to crunch the numbers yourself, or hire some help to determine your family's optimal Social Security claiming ages.
