MY HUSBAND IS GOING TO BE 76 IN SEPT 2017, AND HE IS COLLECTING HIS SOCIAL SECURITY, I WILL BE 61 JULY 2017 AND I WORK FULL TIME, MY QUESTION IS SINCE I AM GOING TO BE 61 THIS YEAR CAN I GO COLLECT A PORTION OF HIS BENEFITS EVEN THOUGH I WORK FULL TIME

Hi,

You must be at least age 62 to be eligible for reduced spousal benefits, and your benefits could be subject to partial or full withholding until you reach full retirement age (FRA). The Social Security earnings test requires withholding of $1 of benefits for each $2 that you earn in excess of an exempt amount, which is set at $16,920 in 2017 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking2.html).

Furthermore, you can't file for spousal benefits without also filing for benefits on your own record, and you will only receive essentially the higher of the two benefit rates. And, if you start drawing benefits prior to FRA, the benefit rate you receive will be permanently reduced.

Before filing, you may want to consider running the maximization software available on this website in order to determine your best filing strategy.

Best, Jerry