Can a non-working wife collect Social Security retirement benefits based upon her husband's earnings? Yes, a spouse can collect a Social Security spousal benefit if the following requirements are met:

1. The spouse applying for the spousal benefit needs to be at least age 62

2. The husband must be eligible to receive benefits, hence he must also be at least age 62. Additionally, the husband is required to actually apply for Social Security retirement benefits for his wife to receive benefits based on his income. The husband can then elect to postpone collecting benefits. This strategy is known as "file and suspend".

To provide you with an illustration, if the wife is 62 and the husband is 61, the wife can begin collecting benefits calculated on her earnings, but she cannot receive benefits based on her husband's earnings until he becomes 62 and starts receiving his own benefits.

However, if the wife is age 66 and her spouse is 62, then the wife can begin collecting as determined by her husband's income (remember, the husband must sign up for his Social Security benefits before the wife will be able to collect based on his income).

In the cases above, the wife can begin collecting benefits based on her own earnings as soon as she turns age 62 (assuming she has as a minimum forty quarters of earnings and qualifies for benefits on her own), then she can change over to one half of her husband's benefit when her husband becomes eligible for Social Security.

A number of points to take into consideration before applying for benefits:

If a wife applies for her Social Security spousal benefit as determined by her husband's income when she reaches full retirement age (age 66 for people retiring now), then she'll receive half of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). On the other hand, if she starts receiving benefits at age 62, her benefit will be reduced to just 35% of her husband's PIA.

It doesn't benefit the spouse to apply after her full retirement age, as spousal benefits will not include delayed credits. Additionally, it won't benefit the wife if the husband waits to apply for benefits because she will not get any boost in benefits that he receives by waiting to apply.

Where a spouse reaches full retirement age and becomes qualified to receive the spousal benefit or her own benefit, she may claim the spousal benefit now and postpone receiving her own benefit so she can build up delayed credits on her own benefit.

An individual can collect Social Security spousal benefits based on an ex-spouse's income if you were married for a minimum of 10 years and you are also at this time unmarried. If you have more than one ex-spouse that you meet the requirements for spousal benefits, you'll get the maximum benefit you qualify for. One edge that divorced spouses have over married spouses is the fact that a divorced spouse does not have to wait for a former husband to start receiving benefits as long as the couple is divorced for not less than 2 yrs when she applies.

Finally, the Social Security retirement program is gender neutral, so despite the fact that this article assumes that the wife is the one applying for spousal benefits, if the wife makes more than the husband, the husband can sign up for Social Security benefits based on his wife's earnings.

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