I am married and was born December 1949. I am 66 years old. I am employed and plan to continue to work daily. My wife was born January 1943. She is a homemaker and is not employed outside of the home. My wife is receiving a small social security benefit close to $900.00 monthly. My question is, "Should I wait to claim my social security until age 70? or, "Should I file for social security benefits now and delay them so my wife can receive a larger monthly social security benefit"?

Thank you.

Hi,

Filing for your benefits now and delaying your benefits will not enable your wife to receive spousal benefits on your account. Under the new law passed by Congress last year, spousal benefits cannot be paid on records that are in voluntary suspense, unless the request for suspension was made prior to April 30 2016 (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/02182016020549PM).

So, your choices are actually between waiting until age 70, or starting to draw your benefits now, which may or may not enable your wife to receive an excess spousal benefit on your record. In order for your wife to be eligible for an excess spousal benefit on your account, one-half of your full retirement age benefit amount (PIA) must exceed her own PIA.

If you wait until age 70 to start, your benefit amount will be 32% higher than the age 66 rate. Furthermore, if you die first, the higher rate you'd qualify for by waiting until age 70 to start would carry over to the potential widow's benefit payable to your wife. You may wish to consider running the maximization software available on this website in order to better clarify your options.

Best, Jerry