Community Chat

[Junebug54]

I was widowed and started collecting at 60 before I remarried. Had to wait until I was over 60 however.

[tansy]

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[Kookielady]

Here goes: I was married for 17 years to my first husband (he has remarried and was also a state employee who collects on his state pension).

Now that I am remarried, I could collect only if I had enough credits on my own.

[adelle38]

Are you complaining that you can't receive benefits from a system to which you did not contribute? Didn't you plan for retirement ?

[Anniecamp]

It doesn't matter if the spouse is younger, you can only collect when THEY do. So, even if dh is older, if not collecting his ss yet, the wife can't collect on his until he does.

[chrystaltree]

That's because you want to collect a spouse benefit. Obviously you can't collect until the wage earner collects his benefit. That's pretty much a given. If you just wanted to game the system, you should have married an older man.

[chumlee_]

Your opening line says it all. Minimum credits are required - then you go on to say you never contributed - DUH!

[Lynneuk]

On 1/21/2014 Anniecamp said:

It doesn't matter if the spouse is younger, you can only collect when THEY do. So, even if dh is older, if not collecting his ss yet, the wife can't collect on his until he does.

I think the older spouse can apply for SS then defer receiving payments,allowing the younger spouse to collect spousal payments.

[BellaPaprika]

And why do you think you should be able to collect now from a fund you never contributed to? You'll just have to wait for your toy boy to reach retirement age.

[bikerbabe]

Makes sense to me. You say you didn't pay the minimum amount into the system. If you didn't marry at all you would not be able to collect anything. A good reason for a wife not to solely rely on getting her husband's SS. You never know what might happen in the future.