Family Cap, Age Affect Spouse's Retirement Benefit
The Wall Street Journal - August 2, 2008
I recently filed for full-retirement-age benefits from Social Security. My current wife and I discovered that my former wife also had filed based on my benefits. We were told by Social Security that she had done so and that this would not affect my current wife's benefits.
Then, Social Security changed its position, saying there is a "family benefits cap." It gave my current wife benefits based on her own earnings, then split the spousal benefit to meet the "cap," leaving my current wife's total way under the prescribed amount, which we understand to be 50% of my benefit. Is there an exception not included in your previous article? Do my survivor benefits also get split?
--Harry B. Banzhaf, Milwaukee
The Social Security Administration maintains that a divorced spouse can collect a Social Security retirement benefit based on the work record of the ex-husband or ex-wife, and that it "will not affect" the latter's retirement benefit or the benefit of that person's current spouse, according to B.J. Jarrett, a Social Security spokesman in Baltimore.
However, there are other factors that could affect the size of the current spouse's benefit, including the age at which she files for Social Security. You say in your question that you have waited until your full retirement age to file for benefits; your current spouse must do so, as well, to get the full 50% of your benefit, Mr. Jarrett says. (Full-retirement ages are listed at ssa.gov/retire2/agereduction.htm.)
The family-benefits cap can matter if there are dependent children, in addition to a current spouse, collecting a Social Security benefit based on the worker's record, he adds. In those cases, there would be a family maximum benefit ranging from 150% to 180% of the worker's benefit.
He suggests returning to your local Social Security office "to find out exactly what the reduction is for and to have a clear understanding of why the spouse's benefit is reduced." Again, "the divorced spouse's benefit should have no impact on the current spouse's benefit," he says.
The same goes for survivor benefits. The divorced spouse's survivor benefit, to which she is entitled, should have no impact on what the current widow or widower gets, he says.
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