Over the course of your marriage in Texas, you and your spouse both accrue social security benefits that you can cash in on after reaching a certain age. Spousal benefits allow you to collect in your spouse’s record should you choose to do so.
Reasons for utilizing spousal benefits can vary from person to person, and one of these may be that you do not qualify for social security when your spouse does, while another simply be that your spouse has accrued more social security and you seek to get a bigger payout. A question many couples ask is: “What happens to my spousal benefits if I go through a divorce?”
Conditions under which spousal benefits may be claimed
The short answer to the question as to whether you can receive spousal benefits after a divorce is yes, but only under certain conditions. Forbes states that to collect spousal benefits after your marriage has ended, you must meet the following criteria:
- Your ex-spouse’s benefit must exceed your own.
- Your spouse must be entitled to either disability or retirement social security benefits.
- You must be at least 62 years old at the time you seek to cash in.
- You must currently be unmarried.
Do bear in mind that while you may be eligible to collect spousal benefits by the age of 62, you won’t be able to get as much if you are not yet at the full retirement age.
Getting full spousal benefits
For people born after 1960, the full retirement age is 67. If you meet the above conditions and aim to collect spousal benefits from a previous marriage, you may be able to get as much as half of your ex’s disability benefit or retirement amount.
