Couples with an earnings gap: when the lower earner should file first

One of you earned most of the household income; the other worked part-time, took years off, or earned less. You are both near 62 and want to know who should file first.

What is the strategy?

The lower earner files on their own record early, as early as 62. The higher earner waits, ideally to 70. When the higher earner finally files, the lower earner’s spousal top-up becomes payable on top of what they already receive.

Filing at 62 with a full retirement age of 67 cuts the lower earner’s own benefit by 30 percent for life, unless some checks are later withheld under the earnings test and credited back.¹ Waiting past full retirement age earns the higher earner delayed retirement credits of 8 percent a year, and the credits stop at 70.² Three years of waiting, from 67 to 70, adds 24 percent to the higher earner’s check.

My position: this sequence fits when the earnings gap is large, the higher earner is in reasonable health, and the household does not need the higher earner’s check now. It does not fit couples with similar records, couples who need the income now, or a higher earner unlikely to reach the mid-80s (if only the higher earner’s health is poor, delaying still protects the survivor). It is a position, not an SSA rule; the arithmetic below lets you judge your own case.

How does the spousal top-up work?

A spouse can receive up to half of the other spouse’s full-retirement-age amount, if that is more than their own benefit.³

First, the top-up waits until the higher earner has filed, because spousal benefits go only to the spouse of someone already entitled to retirement or disability benefits.⁴ Until then the lower earner lives on their own reduced benefit.

Second, the spousal amount is reduced if it starts before your own full retirement age, and it does not grow after that age.³

An illustration, both amounts in the same dollar year, later cost-of-living adjustments ignored. The higher earner’s full-retirement-age benefit is $3,000; the lower earner’s is $1,200. The lower earner files at 62 and receives $840, a 30 percent cut.¹ Half of $3,000 is $1,500, $300 more than the lower earner’s own unreduced $1,200 (SSA measures against the unreduced amount, not the $840).⁸ When the higher earner files at 70, that $300 is added, so the lower earner receives roughly $1,140, provided the lower earner has reached their own full retirement age by then; an earlier top-up is reduced.³⁸

From Next Chapter TodayThe Social Security PlaybookWhen to claim, how to protect a spouse, and the 75 questions people actually ask. By Kwame Kuadey.About the book →

What is deemed filing?

If you turned 62 on or after January 2, 2016 (born January 2, 1954 or later), filing for your own retirement benefit or a spousal benefit counts as filing for both, if you are eligible for both at that time. You receive the higher, and you cannot take a spousal benefit alone while your own record grows.⁵ Exceptions: survivor benefits, spouses receiving disability, and spouses caring for the worker’s young or disabled child.⁵

Why is the survivor benefit the real stake?

When one spouse dies, the survivor receives the higher of the two amounts, not both: up to 100 percent of the deceased spouse’s benefit if the survivor claims it at the survivor’s own full retirement age, less if claimed earlier.⁶ The higher earner’s claiming age therefore shapes the survivor’s income for life, along with the survivor’s own claiming age and own benefit.

In the illustration, if the higher earner waits to 70, the check is about $3,720; filing at 67, it is $3,000.² The survivor’s check starts from one of those two numbers, a $720-a-month gap in the illustration’s dollar year. Cost-of-living adjustments change the dollar figure over time, but the difference between the two plans lasts for the survivor’s life.

This is where break-even math misleads couples. Break-even asks when the larger delayed checks catch up with the checks you skipped (see Should I claim at 62, my full retirement age, or 70?). For a couple, the higher earner’s delayed credits pay out until the second death, not the first.

When is this strategy wrong?

Beyond the health and cash-need cases above:

• Your earnings were similar: if each of you gets more on your own record than half of the other’s, there is no top-up and the survivor gap is small.
• The lower earner is still working. If under full retirement age for the entire year, SSA withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 earned over $25,560 in 2027. In the year you reach full retirement age, the limit is $67,920, withholding is $1 per $3, and only earnings before your full retirement age month count; from that month there is no test.⁷
• A big age gap, which makes the wait for the top-up long.

What to do

1. Both spouses open my Social Security at ssa.gov/myaccount and pull estimates at 62, full retirement age and 70.
2. Write down half of the higher earner’s full-retirement-age amount next to the lower earner’s own amount.
3. Check birth dates against January 2, 1954. Anyone born on or after it is under deemed filing.⁵
4. If the lower earner plans to work, compare expected wages with the 2027 limit: $25,560 if under full retirement age all year, or $67,920 for the months before the full retirement age month in the year they reach it.⁷
5. Write down the survivor number under each plan: the higher earner’s check at 67 and at 70, as a starting point; the survivor’s claiming age and own benefit change the final figure.
6. File at ssa.gov/apply or by calling 1-800-772-1213. When the higher earner files, the lower earner contacts SSA to have the spousal portion added.