I have zero problem with spousal payments. Even outside their own households, those are the parents that worked on the PTA, chaperoned field trips, did the lion share of carpooling, coached little league, mentored sci oly, volunteered with reading programs, etc… Just because you don’t get a paycheck doesn’t mean that you haven’t contributed to society.
That said, I made sure I worked enough to qualify for my own SS.
Actually, widow Sally would get half of Sam’s benefit.
Widow Jane would get her benefit or half of John’s, whichever is larger.
I am widowed and started taking DH’s early, I will switch to mine at 70. It will be more than the 1/2 I am getting now.
I think my post was mis understood. I was a SAHM for 10 plus years and I worked hard and did tons of volunteering. But…I did not put money into the SS system during those years. That was my point. I agree that spouses should get benefits, but still believe 2 earner couples are not treated fairly.
And who to say people who are working are not helping out at school events either, for years I got to work at home(before this WFH phenomenon) and I volunteered in the classroom a lot.
I retired with almost max SS benefits with 35 years of earnings.
I will be taking my own SS, but I have no problem with current spousal setup. There were stay-at-home parents who volunteered more than me and had my back sometimes. Of course a variety of other situations too. There is probably not a totally fair way to do things, but except for some unfortunate anomalies noted here thing seem to mostly be ok.
The big surprise to me is that we still have SS. When I started saving in 1980s I expected to have an excellent pension (instead of my “new plan” much reduced option)… with SS maybe gone by now. Thus we saved diligently into 401k plans. It was a good move, but now covering pension-gap rather than SS-gap.
No, I understood your situation. I was just asking the other poster about views on spousal payments, in general.
But it definitely seems unfair.
It is what it is. I don’t expect the offset and windfall provisions to be repealed in my lifetime.
But as an additional note…if I die first, my husband will get 50% of my pension amount.
My last 5 years of income had me cross the line to obtaining more with my SS benefit than 1/2 of DH’s. The work in my last year (through to mid-Sept) had my estimated payments to final payments go up $17/month - and happy to have the extra money. I was 18 years SAHM and also overcoming aggressive stage III cancer - never wanted either but DH’s business travel and no family around had me become SAHM. If I had been working, who knows if I could have overcome the cancer; I was very debilitated but also had a very abrupt turnaround of the cancer situation.
We definitely need to research DH’s drug plan for 2023 because it seems he will continue on the name only brand of blood thinner - with A Fib resolved it seems he needs to stay on the blood thinner due to stroke risk reduction. Glad to increase his likelihood of aging with relatively good health.
Lots of choices and decisions continuing in retirement - but have a lot of time freedom w/o a work schedule.
Watching the decline of 401k. Ugh.
Actually, when SS was “set up” (back in the dark ages), few were expected to even collect as the life expectancy for men at that time was <60 and for women was ~62. But even if we ignore the childhood diseases which affected life expectancy at birth, once one reached 21, the expected longevity was still just ~65.
Just a quick clarification - you don’t get to choose between your own benefit and spouses/widows benefit. The SSA system does the calculations and awards you the higher of the two.
And yes, widows/widowers take over the primary’s benefit amount. Side note, originally widowers had to prove dependency to get benefits. Widows did not. To a certain extent, that reflected the reality of the time. There was an assumption that a man had worked and would be able to find a job, but a woman who hadn’t worked would never be able to support herself at age 62 or even 60.
Just a clarification to the clarification. Yes, SSA does the calculations, but what the survivor receives is their own benefit PLUS the difference between their own benefit and the higher benefit of the deceased spouse. (The dollars in your bank are the same, but technically it’s in two pieces.)
I would love that😢
Clarifying the clarify:
Widows/widowers who have not claimed their own SS can elect to collect on the spouses record at/after age 60 (50 if disabled).
I was widowed at 57, chose to start collecting DH’s benefit at 64 when I stopped working. SS entered into the system at that time that I was electing to delay my own benefit until age 70.
I can change that at any time, but that entry eliminates ‘reminder’ messages.
When I get my own benefit, it will be all mine as I contributed to SS far longer than my DH who was a federal employee for most of his career.
You don’t get to choose but you can file for survivors benefits first and you can wait until 70 to file for your own.
I once worked for SSA. My only point was that if you are approved for two overlapping benefits you don’t make the choice which to get. You will get the higher. So using the word “choice” between primary and secondary is misleading. As has been noted, there is a choice of when to file.
Helpful discussion: I have to say that dealing with Medicare for ShawWife was pretty arcane (in part because ShawWife’s SS contributions were lower and somewhat sporadic – I think she couldn’t pay for Medicare from her SS contributions so we would have to pay out of pocket, which is what we would have done anyway is health care is an expense of my company). Took months to sort out. Medicare prescription coverage under Part D is pretty arcane. After half an hour on the phone with someone from BCBS Part D group, I still needed some help from this thread to get it fully. And, from this discussion, SS for surviving spouse is obviously pretty arcane as well. I think our FA has modeled this out. I am always struck by how hard some of this would be for an 85 year old or someone who isn’t that smart generally.
ShawWife has made contributions over the years but they are dwarfed by mine as I probably maxed out every year. She maintained her career when the kids were little but definitely slowed down to be there for kids. Plus, her work as a fine artist is not as financially rewarding as mine. So, assuming she is the survivor (which she thinks is unlikely as she has more medical issues than I do), she will benefit from my SS contributions. We definitely didn’t make our plans, including her work slowdown, around potential SS benefits, but we did plan to save enough that she could would would not run out of money if I died first (at any age). We both would like to go over the cliff together Selma and Louise style, but I don’t know if that is going to happen.
I’ve sometimes thought it might if hubby and I died around the same time (though not likely, since he is 7 years older)…. but that would be really hard on the kids and the someday-grandkids.
OpenSocialSecurity is an easy to use site which allows you to pick a year to see what happens when a spouse passes.
