Divorced Spouse Benefits

A divorced spouse benefit is a Social Security retirement benefit paid on a former spouse's earnings record rather than on the claimant's own. It exists so that someone who spent a long marriage building a household, sometimes at the expense of their own earnings record, is not left without spousal support after a divorce. To qualify, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years, the person claiming must be currently unmarried and at least age 62, and the ex-spouse must be entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefits. The benefit can be as much as 50% of the ex-spouse's primary insurance amount, the benefit the ex would receive at full retirement age, and it is reduced if the claimant takes it before reaching their own full retirement age.

The eligibility rules are specific and each one matters. The 10-year requirement is measured by the length of the marriage before the divorce became final; nine years and eleven months does not qualify. The claimant must be currently unmarried, because remarriage generally ends eligibility on a former spouse's record, though if the later marriage also ends the person can become eligible again. There is one important easing of the rules for divorced spouses that does not apply to a current spouse: if the divorce has been final for at least two continuous years, the claimant can receive benefits even if the ex-spouse has not yet applied for their own, as long as the ex is at least 62 and could qualify. This lets a divorced person claim without needing any cooperation from, or even contact with, the ex. Two reassurances address the most common worries. First, claiming on an ex's record takes nothing away from the ex: it does not reduce the ex-spouse's own benefit, nor the benefit of the ex's current spouse, and more than one former spouse can claim on the same record independently. Second, the process is private; the ex-spouse is not notified and their permission is not required. What the divorced-spouse benefit does not do is stack on top of the claimant's own retirement benefit. Under the deemed-filing rules that apply to anyone born after January 1, 1954, filing for one is treated as filing for both, and Social Security pays the higher of the two amounts rather than paying them together. In practice a person receives their own benefit plus, if the divorced-spouse benefit is larger, the difference between them. The size follows the spousal formula. The maximum is 50% of the ex-spouse's primary insurance amount, measured before any delayed retirement credits the ex earned, so an ex who delayed their own claim does not raise the divorced-spouse benefit. Claiming before the claimant's own full retirement age permanently reduces the amount. A separate and more generous set of rules applies after an ex-spouse dies: a surviving divorced spouse from a marriage of at least 10 years can receive up to 100% of what the deceased was receiving, can claim as early as age 60, and, unlike the living-ex benefit, is allowed to remarry after age 60 without losing it. Those survivor rules are a different benefit and are contrasted here only to prevent confusing the two.

A divorced spouse benefit is claimed on the ex's record, tested against the claimant's own benefit, and paid as the higher of the two. The claimant confirms the marriage lasted at least 10 years, that they are currently unmarried and at least 62, and either that the ex has filed or that the divorce has been final at least two years. Social Security then computes 50% of the ex's full retirement age benefit, reduces it if the claimant is under their own full retirement age, compares it to the claimant's own benefit, and pays the larger. A hypothetical example shows the offset. Suppose Carol's own full-retirement-age benefit is $900 a month, and her ex-husband's full-retirement-age benefit (his primary insurance amount) is $2,800. Half of his is $1,400. Because $1,400 is more than her own $900, Carol receives her $900 plus the $500 difference, for $1,400 total, assuming she claims at her full retirement age. If she claimed earlier, both her own benefit and the divorced-spouse portion would be reduced. Her ex-husband's check is unaffected, and if he later remarried, his new spouse could still claim on his record too. The dollar figures are illustrative.

Pros

• Provides retirement income to someone whose own earnings record is small after a long marriage.
• Can be claimed after a two-year divorce even if the ex has not filed, requiring no cooperation or contact.
• Takes nothing from the ex-spouse or their current spouse, and the claim is private.

Cons

• Does not stack on the claimant's own benefit; Social Security pays only the higher of the two.
• Ends if the claimant remarries, unless that later marriage also ends.
• Capped at 50% of the ex's full retirement age amount and reduced for claiming early, so it is not tied to the ex's delayed-credit increases.
• Requires the marriage to have lasted a full 10 years, with no partial credit for shorter marriages.