I will be 66 in April, 2023 and my wife will be 63 next month. I ran the maximize SS numbers. It said she should apply for benefits now for herself and our 11 year old and I should apply for child-in-care spousal benefits now and let my benefits grow until I am 70 (for a number of years, my wife stayed home with the kids and I earn about 4 times what she does). I called SSA to apply, and they said child-in-care spousal benefits are only for younger spouses (under 62) and I can not do that. They said I can only apply for regular spouses benefits or benefits on my own record. Your book and software says the opposite. What should we do?

Hi. No. What you were apparently told by a Social Security employee isn't true. First of all, employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA) can't legally prevent someone from applying for any type of benefit that the agency administers. If someone applies for a type of benefit for which they don't qualify, it's then SSA's responsibility to disallow the person's claim. That would then give the disallowed claimant appeal rights.

More specifically to your situation, though, we've been assured by high ranking SSA officials that there is no upper age limit at which a person can qualify for child in care spousal benefits. And, since deeming does not automatically apply to applications for child in care spousal benefits, you should be able to apply for child in care spousal benefits now while allowing your own Social Security retirement benefit rate to grow until you reach age 70 (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204035#b2).

Therefore, there's no reason that you can't apply for child in care spousal benefits, regardless of your current age. One thing you'll want to be sure to do, though, is to add a statement in the remarks of your application stating: "I am restricting the scope of this application to child in care spousal benefits only. I wish to exclude my own Social Security retirement benefits from the scope of this application." Then, shortly before reaching age 70, you'll need to file another application in order to claim your own Social Security retirement benefits.

Best, Jerry