Can I collect Social Security on my ex-spouse’s record after divorce?
Yes, if the marriage lasted at least ten years. A divorced spouse who is 62 or older and unmarried can receive up to half of the former spouse’s full retirement benefit, if that is more than their own. It does not reduce the former spouse’s benefit or their current spouse’s, the former spouse does not have to agree or even know, and no divorce agreement can take the right away. If the marriage is close to ten years, the date the divorce becomes final matters; it is one of the few reasons to slow a divorce down.
The rules, briefly
This is federal law, not New York law, and nothing you sign in the divorce changes it.
- Ten years. The marriage must have lasted 10 years or more, measured to the date the divorce is final. Nine years and eleven months does not qualify.
- Your status. You must be 62 or older and currently unmarried. Remarrying ends the divorced-spouse benefit, unless that later marriage also ends.
- How much. Up to 50% of the former spouse’s full retirement amount, if that is more than your own benefit; you receive the higher of the two, not both. Claiming before your own full retirement age reduces it.
- The former spouse. Does not need to have claimed yet, as long as you have been divorced at least two years and they are eligible. Their benefit, and any current spouse’s, is unaffected.
- Survivor benefits. If the former spouse dies, a divorced spouse from a 10-year marriage can receive survivor benefits, up to 100% of the deceased’s benefit, from age 60.
- In the agreement. It cannot be waived or traded, so it should not be bargained with. But a marriage at nine and a half years is a reason to time the filing, and a reason to mention it on the first call.
Social Security Administration: Benefits for divorced spouses and surviving divorced spouses (ssa.gov). 42 U.S.C. §402(b) and (c).