I started collecting SS at age 64. I received mine and an added amount to equal 1/2 of my x husbands at the time. He has now retired. Am I able to go back and collect a higher amount based on his amount when he retired?

Hi. No. If you start collecting benefits prior to full retirement age (FRA) and if you collect all of your benefits prior to FRA, the reduction for age applied to your retirement and/or spousal or divorced spousal benefit rate is permanent. Your ex-husband's retirement wouldn't have any effect on your divorced spousal rate because your rate would be calculated the same whether he was working or not when you started drawing your benefits.

The only way that your divorced spousal rate would increase when your ex-husband retired is if his earnings between then and the time you started drawing divorced spousal benefits were high enough to increase his primary insurance amount (PIA). And, in that event your divorced spousal rate would automatically be recalculated, so you wouldn't need to do anything to receive that type of rate increase.

Best, Jerry