I am 76 and have been retired since 1998. When I turned 62 I applied for early social security and received Just under $200.00 a month and over the years it was increased to just over $200.00. The benefit is small because I was working and contributing to a PERA fund for 30 years. As you know people under PERA were not able to contribute to social security after 1980. I was married for 20 years to my ex spouse. Divorced in 2004. She was 12 years younger but contributed to social security and has continued to work. She is now 65. Can I claim a benefit under her social security.

Hi. You can certainly apply for benefits from your ex-wife's account, but if you're collecting a PERA pension then any divorced spousal or survivor benefits for which you qualify would almost certainly be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your PERA pension due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). In that case, even if you meet all the requirements for divorced spousal or survivor benefits, you could only actually be paid those benefits if your divorced spousal or survivor rate is more than 2/3rds of the amount of your PERA pension.

Best, Jerry