My 68-year-old mother needs money and I’m wondering if she can get spousal benefits from Social Security if she’s divorced

A lot of people end up retiring without much — or any — savings. And people in that boat often end up having to rely on Social Security to make ends meet.

But what if you never worked and paid into Social Security? You might assume that you can’t get benefits. But that’s not necessarily the case. You may actually be entitled to spousal benefits by virtue of being married – even if you do qualify for Social Security otherwise.

In this Reddit post, we have someone who’s trying to help their 68-year-old mother get spousal benefits. The mother gets a small Social Security check of her own, but with spousal benefits, her payments could get bumped up.

The poster wants to know if their mom can get spousal benefits from Social Security if she’s divorced. And the answer? Absolutely.

Social Security takes care of spouses — married or not

One nice thing about Social Security is that even if you’re not eligible for benefits of your own, you may qualify for spousal benefits. And even if you’re entitled to benefits based on the amount of money you earned, if spousal benefits will bump up your monthly payments, Social Security will do that for you.

Spousal benefits also don’t just apply to people who are married, though. If you’re divorced, you may be entitled to spousal benefits as well.

And the nice thing is that if you’re divorced, you don’t need to wait for your spouse to claim Social Security for you to get benefits as well. When you’re married, spousal benefits cannot be claimed until your spouse signs up for Social Security.

Spousal benefits max out at 50% of your spouse or ex-spouse’s benefit at full retirement age (FRA).

So getting back to the Reddit post above, all the poster’s mother should need to do is contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) and indicate that she wants spousal benefits. Interestingly, the switch from someone’s individual benefit to spousal benefits usually happens automatically. But sometimes, there can be glitches.

That said, Social Security will only pay the larger of an individual benefit or a spousal benefit. So let’s say you’re eligible for $1,400 a month based on your own earnings record, but your spouse or ex-spouse gets $3,200 a month at their FRA. That makes your spousal benefit worth $1,600, or $200 more.

Usually, in that situation, you’ll get the larger amount of the two automatically. But if that doesn’t happen, it’s worth visiting a local Social Security office to straighten things out.

Sometimes, it’s a matter of showing the right paperwork

It’s not a given that the SSA will have all of the right information on file. What the poster may need to do here is simply hand over copies of documentation showing their mother was married and is now divorced.

If the mother’s spousal benefit is larger than her current benefit, Social Security should increase her monthly payments. So it’s worth making an appointment to try to sort things out.

To be clear, though, the mother will only be entitled to one set of benefits. If she’s getting $1,400 now and her spousal benefit is worth $1,600, she won’t get $3,000 a month from Social Security. It’s either going to be one or the other, but she might as well get the higher amount.

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