Divorced Spouses Can Collect Up to Half of an Ex’s Full Social Security Benefit if the Marriage Lasted 10 Years, the Agency Reminds

A marriage that lasted at least 10 years can still pay off at Social Security long after the divorce. A divorced spouse who meets the agency’s rules can collect up to half of a former husband’s or wife’s full retirement benefit, and the ex does not lose a dollar in the process.

The Social Security Administration laid out those rules again in an Oct. 27 post on divorced-spouse benefits, two weeks after announcing the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027.

The conditions in the agency’s rules

According to the SSA post, a divorced spouse can collect on a former spouse’s record when all of the following are true:

• The marriage lasted at least 10 years.
• The person claiming is 62 or older.
• The person claiming is currently unmarried.
• The former spouse is entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefits.

The federal regulation behind the benefit, 20 CFR 404.331, adds detail on each point. The 10 years must come immediately before the divorce became final, and the marriage must have been valid under state law. The month a divorce becomes final counts as an unmarried month.

Remarriage generally ends eligibility. The agency says a person who has remarried cannot collect on the earlier spouse’s record unless that later marriage has also ended.

The ex-spouse does not need to have filed. If the couple has been divorced for at least two years and the former spouse is at least 62, the divorced spouse can apply even if the ex has not started benefits. If the ex is already collecting, there is no two-year wait.

How much a divorced-spouse benefit pays

The ceiling is half of the former spouse’s primary insurance amount, the benefit that worker would receive at full retirement age. The agency’s family-benefits page says the payment can start at 62 but is higher the longer the claimant waits, up to full retirement age.

Claiming early costs real money. According to AARP’s guide to ex-spouse benefits, a divorced-spouse benefit taken at 62 can be as low as 32.5% of the former spouse’s full benefit instead of 50%. Full retirement age is 66 and 10 months for people born in 1959 and 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

The benefit does not stack on top of a person’s own retirement check. When someone qualifies on both records, Social Security pays the higher of the two amounts, not both. The SSA post notes one exception for older claimants: people born before Jan. 2, 1954, who have reached full retirement age can choose to take only the divorced-spouse benefit and let their own retirement benefit keep growing.

Working while collecting can also trim the check temporarily. The family-benefits page says earnings above the annual limit can reduce payments for people below full retirement age. That limit rises to $25,560 in 2027, and Americans born in 1960 become the first group to reach a full retirement age of 67 next year, which matters for anyone timing a divorced-spouse claim to avoid the early-claiming cut.

What the former spouse keeps

A divorced-spouse claim does not reduce the former spouse’s own benefit. It also does not cut what a current husband or wife of the worker receives, according to AARP.

The agency’s family-benefits page adds that payments to ex-spouses do not count toward the family maximum, the cap that can shrink benefits for a worker’s current spouse and children when several people draw on the same record.

For the 3.6% raise taking effect in 2027, divorced-spouse benefits rise along with all other Social Security payments, with the first increased checks arriving in January. The raise arrives automatically and requires no call or form.

When the former spouse dies

The rules shift once the worker dies. The SSA post says a surviving divorced spouse may qualify for widow’s or widower’s benefits starting at 60, or at 50 with a disability, if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, the survivor is not currently married and the survivor is not eligible for a higher benefit on their own record.

The survivor benefit can be much larger than the divorced-spouse benefit. The agency’s survivor-benefits page says surviving spouses and ex-spouses start at 71.5% of the deceased worker’s benefit and can receive up to 100% at full retirement age for survivor benefits. In between, the share is over 75% at 61, over 80% at 63 and over 90% at 65.

Age does not matter in one situation. A surviving divorced spouse caring for the deceased worker’s child who is under 16, or who is disabled and entitled to benefits, can qualify at any age. Those survivor payments do not reduce benefits for the worker’s current spouse or other family members.

Applications for spouse and divorced-spouse benefits start on the agency’s family-benefits application page, which notes that a divorced spouse may also qualify for Medicare based on the former spouse’s work history. People who need help or an appointment can call the national line at 1-800-772-1213.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: J. Passepartout, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons