what happens to my social security if i get divorced
Even if it's been decades since the ink stale on your divorce decree, those marital vows yous took tin pay off in the form of higher Social Security benefits. As long as you lot haven't remarried, your marriage lasted at least 10 years, and two years take passed since your divorce was finalized, you can qualify for upwards to 50% of a living ex-spouse's benefit once yous're both eligible to outset collecting.
Many people will get more Social Security but from claiming based on their own tape, rather than an ex's. (Pitiful, you lot don't get both benefits.) But if you take a limited work history, collecting on an ex'south record could requite those monthly checks a serious boost.
7 Myths about claiming your ex's Social Security
In that location are a lot of misconceptions virtually Social Security and divorce. Here are 7 myths that are just plain wrong.
1. Myth: You'll reduce their checks.
A December 2020 Fidelity survey institute that 52% of adults believed that someone's ex-spouse could influence their Social Security benefits. Nope. Totally false. Claiming based on your ex's record has admittedly no impact their benefits. If they've remarried, their current spouse's benefits aren't affected either.
2. Myth: Your divorce decree can ban y'all from getting their benefits.
Some divorce decrees do state that one spouse is prohibited from getting the other's benefits. Merely as long as the spousal relationship lasted at to the lowest degree 10 years, those clauses are "worthless and never enforced," according to the Social Security Assistants.
3. Myth: You demand your ex's blessing.
You don't need to track downwardly your ex so that they tin sign off. Social Security won't contact them if you're using their record to qualify. However, yous'll need to provide some information well-nigh them so Social Security can locate their tape.
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If you don't have their Social Security number, they may be able to find them if yous can provide your ex-spouse'due south proper name, parents' names, and their engagement and place of birth.
4. Myth: You have to wait for them to take benefits earlier yous can claim on their record.
To get your ex's Social Security, they demand to be eligible for benefits. That means they must be at least 62 with a minimum of 40 work credits, which is the equivalent of 10 years of full-fourth dimension work. But information technology doesn't affair whether he or she has actually claimed nevertheless. Every bit long as you're at least 62, you tin start drawing benefits.
5. Myth: Yous get to cull betwixt your benefit and theirs.
You don't get to choose betwixt your benefit and theirs. When you apply for Social Security, you'll get whichever is college: your do good or theirs. If their earnings history qualifies you for more benefits, Social Security will requite you whatever you're eligible for based on your own earnings, and so use their record to requite you the departure.
half dozen. Myth: You can get delayed credits if you're challenge on their benefit.
When y'all're taking Social Security based on your own record, yous get an viii% delayed retirement credit for every twelvemonth you lot hold off on delaying benefits past your full retirement age until yous're 70. But that isn't the case when yous're taking benefits based on a current or ex-spouse's tape. Your benefits max out at your full retirement age.
7. Myth: Yous can accept benefits on their record and and so switch to your own larger benefit after on.
There's some truth to this one: You may exist able to file what'due south called a restricted application for Social Security to claim your ex-spouse's benefits and so switch over to your own higher benefit after y'all accomplish full retirement age -- merely only if you were born on or before Jan. 2, 1954. The Bipartisan Upkeep Human activity of 2015 eliminated that choice for anyone born afterwards that engagement.
Should y'all have your ex's Social Security?
Whether you're claiming on your record or theirs, exist aware of the consequences of starting Social Security early. Yous tin only qualify for 50% of their benefit if you wait until your full retirement age. If y'all first benefits at 62, your checks will just be 32.5% of their principal insurance amount.
If you come across the eligibility requirements for taking your ex-spouse'southward benefits, it's certainly worth having Social Security calculate both benefits so you lot tin go the maximum corporeality. Yous won't affect their benefits, and you won't even have to contact them.
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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/retirement/2021/02/17/7-myths-about-social-security-divorce/115473494/
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