Can my wife claim spousal benefits on my SSDI instead of her small retirement benefit at 62?

congrats on getting approved! i went thru that nightmare 2 years ago, total pain!!!! As for ur wife, she automatically gets whatever is higher between her own or half of yours, SSA does the calculation.

Congratulations on your SSDI approval! Regarding your wife's benefits, there are several important factors to consider: 1. When your wife files at age 62, she'll be filing early (before her Full Retirement Age), which means any benefit she receives will be permanently reduced. 2. If she files for her own retirement benefit at 62, she'll automatically be deemed to be filing for spousal benefits as well. This is called "deemed filing." 3. The spousal benefit at Full Retirement Age would be 50% of your Primary Insurance Amount (the SSDI amount you're receiving). However, since she's filing at 62, the spousal portion will be reduced to approximately 32.5-35% of your benefit amount. 4. Social Security will pay her own reduced retirement benefit first, then add a supplement to bring the total up to the reduced spousal benefit amount IF the spousal amount is higher. Based on your numbers: If your SSDI is $2,375, a 50% spousal benefit would be $1,187.50 at her Full Retirement Age. Reduced for age 62, it would be approximately $771-$830 (depending on her exact birth year). Since her own benefit at 62 would be about $850, she might not receive any additional spousal benefit if her own reduced benefit exceeds the reduced spousal amount.

I was in a similar situation with my husband. Its SO FRUSTRATING that they reduce the spousal benefit when you take it early!! I thought I'd get half of my husbands but ended up with way less because I filed at 62. One thing to consider - could your wife wait until her full retirement age to file? That way she'd get the full 50% of your SSDI without reduction. That would be around $1,187 instead of $850 if I'm understanding your numbers right. Just depends if you guys need the money now or can wait.

sry to jump in but isnt there some special rule with SSDI vs regular SS retirement? my brother got SSDI and his wife got something different than normal spousal i think. also dont forget medicare comes with SSDI after 24 months which is a huge benefit

Just want to add my experience - my situation was almost identical! I'm on SSDI and my wife claimed at 62. She was told by the agent that she would get half my benefit but when payments started it was MUCH lower because of the early claiming reduction. We were so upset because we budgeted based on wrong information. Be very clear when talking to SSA that you understand the reduction factors.

Have your wife call SSA directly to get the EXACT calculation based on your specific situation. When I tried calling about my spousal benefits last year, I spent 3 days trying to get through before giving up. Then someone told me about Claimyr.com which connects you to a Social Security agent usually within 20 minutes. You can see how it works in their video demo: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU It worked great for me and saved hours of frustration. The agent was able to run all the calculations and tell me exactly what my benefit would be under different claiming scenarios. Really helped us make an informed decision rather than guessing.

The rules for spouse's benefits are unnecessarily complicated! Here's my understanding based on research and my own experience with my husband's SSDI: 1. The spousal benefit is calculated as the DIFFERENCE between your spouse's own benefit and up to 50% of yours (if filing at FRA) 2. If your wife's PIA (full retirement age amount) is $1,200 but she's getting $850 at 62, they'll compare her $1,200 to 50% of your $2,375 ($1,187.50) 3. Since these amounts are so close, she might not get ANY spousal supplement at all 4. BUT... everything gets reduced for early filing, and the reduction factors are different for retirement vs spousal Possible scenarios: a) If her reduced own benefit > reduced spousal: she just gets her own benefit b) If reduced spousal > reduced own benefit: she gets her own benefit PLUS the difference to reach the spousal amount This is definitely worth scheduling an appointment with SSA to get the exact calculation. They can tell you exactly what she'd receive in all scenarios.

my buddy's wife faced this exact situation last year and she ended up just taking her own benefit at 62 and then switching to the spousal benefit at her full retirement age when it wouldn't be reduced anymore. can ur wife do that?