Social Security Spousal Benefits Calculator

20 CFR 404.333: “Your wife's or husband's monthly benefit is equal to one-half the insured person's primary insurance amount.” SSA's family benefits page puts it in plain terms: “You could get up to half of the benefit amount your family member would get at their Full Retirement Age.” The statute says the same for a wife or husband and for a divorced spouse (42 U.S.C. 402(b)(2) and (c)(2)).

Worked example. The spouse was born July 2, 1964, so the full retirement age is 67, and the worker's PIA is $2,000. Half of the PIA is $1,000. Claiming at 67 pays $1,000; at 64 it pays $750 (37.5% of the PIA); at 62 it pays $650 (32.5%). Claiming at 70 pays $1,000, the same as 67, because delayed credits do not apply to a spousal benefit.

The percentage is of the worker's PIA, not of the worker's check. A worker who claims early and gets a reduced benefit does not shrink the spousal amount, because it is figured from the PIA. SSA's former Benefits For Your Family page (archived January 9, 2024) said: “Benefits paid to your spouse will not decrease your retirement benefit.”

SSA: “A spousal benefit is reduced 25/36 of one percent for each month before normal retirement age, up to 36 months. If the number of months exceeds 36, then the benefit is further reduced 5/12 of one percent per month.” 20 CFR 404.410(b) uses the same rates, and 42 U.S.C. 402(q)(1)(A) names the “25/36 of 1 percent of such amount if such benefit is a wife's or husband's insurance benefit.” Because the rate for a spouse is 25/36 of 1% a month, 36 months costs 25% (POMS: “The total reduction for 36 months is 25%.”). The most it can come to for a full retirement age of 67 is 60 months: 35% off, which SSA states as “doing so may result in a benefit as little as 32.5 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount.”

1. Take one-half of the worker's PIA.
2. Count the whole months from the claiming month to the month you reach full retirement age.
3. Multiply the first 36 months by 25/36 of 1% and each month beyond 36 by 5/12 of 1%. POMS RS 00615.201 writes this as a fraction of the benefit: (144 − months) / 144 for 1 to 36 months, and (180 − months beyond 36) / 240 for 37 to 60.
4. Multiply and round down to the next dime. POMS: “Round the result down to the next dime for benefits after 5/82”

SSA's own example: with a PIA of $1,600 and a spouse who starts 36 months early, the base is $800, the reduction is 25%, the result is $600 and “Thus, in this case, the final spousal benefit is 37.5 percent of the primary insurance amount.” SSA's Benefits for Spouses page is dated (last reviewed or modified September 25, 2013), but its rates are the ones in the statute, the regulation and POMS today.

The chart below provides examples of the percentage of your full retirement benefit amount you and your spouse would receive from age 62 up to your full retirement age. SSA's chart covers a full retirement age of 67 (born 1960 or later). The percentages below are computed from the statute, rounded to one decimal, and the calculation matches SSA's published table for all 61 months from 62 to 67.

You must be 62 for the whole month, so 62 exactly is available only with a birthday on the 2nd; the calculator uses that rule. A spouse caring for a child under 16 or a disabled child is not reduced for those months. This does not apply to a divorced spouse, and the child must be entitled to child's benefits on the worker's record (20 CFR 404.330(c); 42 U.S.C. 402(b)(1)(B)).

POMS RS 00615.250 says to “first reduce the RIB PIA by the RIB reduction factor. Then subtract the RIB PIA from the unreduced spouse's benefit, and reduce the excess by the spouse's reduction factor. The reduced excess is the amount actually payable as a spouse.” The statute (42 U.S.C. 402(q)(3)(B)) applies the reduction to “if it were equal to the excess of such wife's or husband's insurance benefit (before reduction under this subsection) over such old-age insurance benefit (before reduction under this subsection).” SSA's former Benefits For Your Family page (archived January 9, 2024) described the result this way: “If your spouse qualifies for benefits on their own record, we will pay that amount first. If the benefit on your record is higher, they will get an additional amount on your record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount.”

Example. Worker PIA $2,000, so the spousal amount is $1,000. The spouse's own PIA is $600. Claiming at 62 with a full retirement age of 67:

• Own benefit reduced for 60 months: $420 (70% of $600).
• Excess: $1,000 − $600 = $400, reduced by 35% to $260.
• Total: $420 + $260 = $680 a month.

POMS RS 00615.250 adds: “There is no entitlement to a reduced wife's (husband's) benefit if the wife's (husband's) own PIA equals or exceeds one-half of the husband's (wife's) PIA.” Delayed credits on the own benefit are handled last. POMS RS 00615.694: “the combined payment amount is computed without consideration of the DRCs. The DRCs are then added to the RIB and that amount is subtracted from the combined payment amount to determine the amount payable as an auxiliary/survivor.” In the example, a spouse with an own PIA of $800 who claims at 70 has an own benefit of $992 with credits, but the combined amount without credits is $1,000, so the total is $1,000 and the spousal portion is $8.

The calculator assumes the own benefit and the spousal benefit start in the same month, which is what deemed filing produces for people born on or after January 2, 1954. If your own retirement benefit started in any earlier month, your result will differ (see the limits below). For a spouse who receives a disability benefit, the statute works differently: 42 U.S.C. 402(q)(3)(C) reduces the spousal benefit by “the amount by which such wife's, husband's, widow's, or widower's insurance benefit would be reduced under paragraph (1) for such month if it were equal to the excess of such wife's, husband's, widow's, or widower's insurance benefit (before reduction under this subsection) over such disability insurance benefit (before reduction under this subsection).” The calculator has a box for that case.

No. 20 CFR 404.313(e)(2): “We do not use your delayed retirement credits to increase the benefits of other family members entitled on your earnings record.” SSA's former Benefits For Your Family page (archived January 9, 2024) said: “The benefits for your spouse do not include any delayed retirement credits you may receive.” So a worker who waits until 70 raises their own check, but the spouse's benefit stays at half of the PIA. (Credits do raise a surviving spouse's benefit under 404.313(e)(1); that is a different benefit.) Nor does a spouse gain by waiting past their own full retirement age: the reduction ends at full retirement age and the benefit stays at half of the PIA.

For the worker's own claiming trade-offs, use the Social Security break-even calculator.

• The worker must have filed. SSA: “When a worker files for retirement benefits, the worker's spouse may be eligible for a benefit based on the worker's earnings.”
• Age 62, or a child in your care. SSA: “Another requirement is that the spouse must be at least age 62 or have a qualifying child in her/his care.” The regulation is more specific. 20 CFR 404.330(c) names “a child who is entitled to child's benefits on the insured's earnings record and the child is either under age 16 or disabled” and 404.410 says: “However, your benefits as a wife or husband are not reduced for any month in which you have in your care a child of the worker on whose earnings record you are entitled. The child must be entitled to child's benefits.” This does not apply to a divorced spouse, and the child must be entitled to child's benefits on the worker's record (20 CFR 404.330(c); 42 U.S.C. 402(b)(1)(B)).
• Length of the marriage. 20 CFR 404.330(a): “Your relationship to the insured as a wife or husband has lasted at least 1 year.” (or one of the other conditions the regulation lists, such as being the natural parents of a child).
• Your own benefit must be smaller. You are not entitled if your own PIA is as large as the full spousal benefit (20 CFR 404.330(d); 42 U.S.C. 402(b)(1)(D)).
• Divorced spouse. 20 CFR 404.331 requires that “You were married to the insured for at least 10 years immediately before your divorce became final;” and that “You are not married.” SSA's family benefits page says: “Ex-spouses who were married for at least 10 years, as well as some valid non-marital legal relationships, may be eligible.” The regulation also has a 2-year rule: “You are entitled to these benefits even though the insured person is not yet entitled to benefits, if the insured person is at least age 62” and, in that case, “You have been divorced from the insured person for at least 2 years.” Once the worker is entitled, the 2-year rule is not needed.
• Deemed filing. Under 42 U.S.C. 402(r), “such individual shall be deemed to have filed an application for wife's or husband's insurance benefits for such month.” (the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Pub. L. 114-74, section 831, extended it past full retirement age for people who reach 62 after 2015). Before 2015 the statute applied only if “If the first month for which an individual is entitled to an old-age insurance benefit is a month before the month in which such individual attains retirement age” and the 2015 law says its amendments “shall apply with respect to individuals who attain age 62 in any calendar year after 2015.” It applies only when you are eligible: 402(r)(3) says “an individual shall be deemed eligible for a benefit for a month if, upon filing application therefor in such month, he would be entitled to such benefit for such month.” SSA's former Benefits For Your Family page (archived January 9, 2024) said: “If your spouse’s birthday is January 2, 1954 or later, the option to take only one benefit at full retirement age no longer exists. If your spouse files for one benefit, they will be effectively filing for all retirement or spousal benefits.”

Yes, for spouses who receive a pension from work not covered by Social Security. SSA: “The Act ends the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).” “The Act was signed into law on January 5, 2025.” The law is Pub. L. 118-273, and its effective-date section says the amendments “shall apply with respect to monthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act for months after December 2023.”

SSA gives the effective date this way: “December 2023 is the last month that WEP and GPO will apply. This means that those rules no longer apply to benefits payable for January 2024 and later.” “The Act applies to benefits you get on your own record (retirement or disability benefits) and to spouse’s or surviving spouse’s benefits on another person’s record.” Not every pension reduction ended for earlier months: “WEP and GPO still apply to months prior to January 2024.” The calculator does not apply any pension offset, because none applies to months from January 2024.

• If you receive Social Security disability benefits, your own benefit is not reduced for age and this estimate understates your total (42 U.S.C. 402(q)(3)(C)).
• The family maximum can cut the spousal benefit, and the family maximum reduction comes before the age reduction (20 CFR 404.410(b)).
• The earnings test can reduce a spouse's benefit because of the worker's excess earnings, and because of your own excess earnings while you are under full retirement age; it does not reduce a divorced spouse's benefit when the couple has been divorced at least 2 years (20 CFR 404.415).
• A spouse caring for a child under 16 or a disabled child is not reduced for those months. This does not apply to a divorced spouse, and the child must be entitled to child's benefits on the worker's record (20 CFR 404.330(c); 42 U.S.C. 402(b)(1)(B)).
• This estimate assumes your own retirement benefit and the spousal benefit start in the same month. If your own retirement benefit started in any earlier month, your own benefit and your total will differ, and a spousal benefit that starts at or after full retirement age can still be reduced (POMS RS 00615.201).
• If the worker has not yet filed, deemed filing applies only when you are eligible for spousal benefits in that month, so filing for your own benefit may not start a spousal benefit, per section 402(r)(1) and (3) of the Social Security Act.
• Payments are rounded down to the whole dollar after any Medicare premium is deducted (20 CFR 404.313(b)(1)).
• Rounding: SSA rounds a reduced spousal benefit down to the dime (POMS RS 00615.201). This estimate treats the PIA as a whole dime and does not round one-half of the PIA before reducing it, so it can differ from SSA's by up to 10 cents.
• Taxes on benefits. See the taxable Social Security benefits calculator.
• A spouse born before 1943 and survivor benefits.

What the sources say. Family maximum, 20 CFR 404.410(b): “Your wife's or husband's benefits before any reduction (see §§ 404.304 and 404.333) are reduced first (if necessary) for the family maximum under § 404.403. They are then reduced based on the number of months of entitlement prior to the month you attain full retirement age.” SSA: “If needed, payments for the spouse and children will be lowered to stay under this limit.” Earnings test, 20 CFR 404.415(b): “We will reduce husband's, wife's, and child's insurance benefits payable (or deemed payable—see § 404.420) on the insured individual's earnings record because of the excess earnings of the insured individual.” (For the 2027 earnings limits, see the 2027 COLA and earnings test page.) Own benefit started earlier, POMS RS 00615.201: “For any person who first becomes entitled to spouse's benefits at or after FRA unless they have been entitled to a reduced RIB prior to FRA.” Rounding to the dollar, 20 CFR 404.313(b)(1): “If a supplementary medical insurance premium is involved it is then deducted. The result is rounded to the next lower multiple of $1 (if the answer is not already a multiple of $1).”