There Is One Situation Where Claiming Social Security Benefits After FRA Almost Never Makes Sense

When it comes to claiming Social Security retirement benefits, the common advice is to start your payments as late as possible.

Although you can claim Social Security retirement benefits when you are as young as 62, each month you delay will increase your income until age 70. A delay also maximizes your odds of getting the most lifetime income, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

However, there is one exception. In one specific situation, it almost never makes sense to delay a Social Security benefits claim after you have reached your full retirement age. Here’s why. 

If this is your situation, don’t wait to claim benefits

Although most seniors can benefit from waiting until 70 (or at least as long as possible) to start collecting Social Security, one particular group should usually claim sooner: Those collecting spousal benefits. 

Spousal benefits are claimed on your husband or wife’s work record. They can be higher than your retirement benefit if you did not work enough to earn your own retirement benefits or if your spouse earned a lot more than you did over the course of their career.

Your spousal benefit is worth up to 50% of your husband or wife’s standard benefit (the amount they would collect at full retirement age). 

If you are getting spousal benefits, you should often wait to claim them until your full retirement age to avoid shrinking the amount you are entitled to. But, waiting beyond FRA seldom makes sense because delayed retirement credits that normally reward a post-FRA filing are not available for spousal benefits.

The most you can collect from spousal benefits is 50% of your husband or wife’s standard benefit — and that’s true whether you claim benefits at your FRA, at 70, or even older. Since you cannot make your spousal benefit bigger by waiting beyond your FRA, there’s no reason for a delay. Putting off your spousal benefits at this point would often just involve leaving money on the table for no reason. 

What are the exceptions to the general rule?

There is, however, one exception to the general rule that you shouldn’t delay your spousal benefits claim beyond your FRA. That exception applies if you want to wait as long as possible for your spouse to claim their own retirement checks.

See, you cannot claim your spousal benefits unless or until your husband or wife claims their retirement benefits. Say your husband was the high earner, and you are both 67 years old. You may be ready to retire and claim your spousal benefit at 67. But you must wait for your husband to also claim his retirement benefits. 

Your husband shouldn’t necessarily rush into doing that, though. If he can wait beyond his FRA until he maxes out delayed retirement credits at 70, you maximize his bigger benefit. You can bring more combined Social Security income into the household. You can also maximize survivor benefits. 

In this case, it would make sense to allow your husband to delay his own check — even though that means delaying your spousal benefits claim beyond FRA. Yes, this means you have three years when your spousal benefit is off the table even though you could be collecting it. And you aren’t directly growing your own benefit by waiting. But you could still end up better off in the end.

You can also claim your own smaller retirement benefit, if you’re eligible for one at all, and use that to help you cover the bills until your spouse claims his retirement checks. Once your husband hits 70 and can collect his maxed-out Social Security check, you’ll then get 50% of his primary insurance amount, and your potential future survivor benefits will be as high as they can be. 

The complexities of this decision show how challenging Social Security claims can be for a married couple. You should consider talking with a financial advisor to help you decide on a strategy that makes sense if you have a spouse and want an optimal claiming strategy for both of you.