I will turn 66 Jan 13 2020. My wife is disabled and collecting her social security. I am working. I thought I might take my social security March 1 if I understand correctly to get my full amount. I am trying to pay my house down to do a reverse mortgage. My wife gets $1346, I will get $2010. Reading some of your stories I was wondering can my wife claim my social security and how does it work? I wouldn't claim until later then to get a higher amount, I plan to work until I am 68 to 70.

Hi,

I'm not sure if you mean that you're already age 66, or if you meant to type that you'll turn 66 in January of 2021. If it's the latter, then your full retirement age (FRA) would be age 66 & 2 months and you'd get your FRA rate if you claim your benefits effective with March 2021. Or, you could wait up until the month you turn age 70 to start drawing, in which case your benefit rate would increase by 2/3rds of 1% for each month that you wait past FRA to start collecting.

It doesn't sound like your wife will ever be able to collect benefits from your record as long as you are living. Your wife could only qualify for spousal benefits if her primary insurance amount (PIA) is less than half as much as your PIA, and that apparently isn't the case according to the benefit amounts you mentioned. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA), or their full Social Security disability (SSDI) benefit rate. Even if your wife's PIA was less than half as much as your PIA, though, she couldn't collect spousal benefits at least until you start drawing your benefits.

However, if you die before your wife then she could potentially receive a survivor benefit rate equal to the full amount that you were collecting at the time of your death. She couldn't receive your full rate and her own benefit too, though, just the higher of the two amounts. Thus, if you wait until you're age 70 to start collecting your benefit, both your benefit rate and your wife's potential widow's rate would be more than 30% higher than if you start drawing at FRA.

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry