Social Security delayed retirement credits with spousal top-up - can I still get 8% yearly increase?
I just turned 67 (my FRA) and started receiving Social Security retirement benefits. My wife is getting her own benefit plus a spousal top-up since her benefit is lower than mine. I recently learned I could have suspended my retirement benefits from 67 to 70 and earned an 8% increase for each year delayed (24% total!). I'm wondering if I can still do this even though my wife is getting a spousal top-up based on my record? Will suspending my benefits also stop her spousal portion? We need her full amount to cover our expenses, but I'd love to increase my future benefit if possible. Has anyone navigated this situation successfully? Thanks for any insights!
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Daniel Washington
Yes, you can suspend your retirement benefits from FRA to age 70 to earn delayed retirement credits (DRCs) of 8% per year. HOWEVER - and this is a big however - when you suspend your benefits, any benefits paid on your record (like your wife's spousal benefits) will also be suspended during that time. The only exception is divorced spouse benefits. So your wife would only receive her own retirement benefit while yours is suspended, losing the spousal top-up until you restart your benefits.
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Lauren Zeb
•Thanks for explaining this. So there's really no way for me to get those delayed credits without affecting my wife's benefits? That's disappointing. I was hoping there might be some exception or workaround.
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Aurora Lacasse
My husband tried this last year and it was a NIGHTMARE. When he suspended his benefits, my top-up disappeared with NO WARNING from SSA! Took us 3 months to figure out what happened and by then we'd fallen behind on bills. Be very careful with this!
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Anthony Young
•Same thing happened to my parents! Dad suspended and mom's check dropped by almost $600. They had to restart his benefits right away. SSA should really make this clearer on their website!!!
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Charlotte White
The confusion here stems from the difference between "filing and suspending" versus never filing at all. If you had never filed for benefits and waited until 70, both you and your wife could have filed at that point - you with the 24% increase and her with the spousal benefit based on your higher amount. But once you've already filed and your wife is receiving the spousal top-up, suspending now will indeed pause her spousal portion. You might want to calculate exactly how much money you'd lose during the suspension period versus how much you'd gain after age 70. For some couples, it still makes financial sense if one spouse has a much longer life expectancy.
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Lauren Zeb
•That makes sense. I hadn't thought about doing the actual calculation to see if it's worth it in the long run. If I live into my 90s like my parents did, it might still be worthwhile. I'll have to run the numbers. Do you know if there's a good calculator for this specific scenario?
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Admin_Masters
I think you can re-suspend and un-suspend once every 12 months? Maybe you could suspend for just long enough to get some credits but not too long to hurt finances too much? Also check if your wifes benefit would be enough without the spousal part during suspension.
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Daniel Washington
•That's not correct. You can only request a suspension once you've reached your full retirement age. Once you've suspended, you can request reinstatement at any time. But there's no "once per 12 months" rule for suspensions - you're probably thinking of the rule that limits how often you can withdraw your application for retirement benefits, which is completely different.
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Matthew Sanchez
I was in exactly this position with my wife last year. After crunching the numbers with a financial advisor, we decided it wasn't worth suspending. The break-even point where I'd come out ahead would have been around age 83, and the immediate financial strain wasn't worth it. By the way, I spent WEEKS trying to get through to SSA on the phone to ask these questions. Constant busy signals or being disconnected after waiting for hours. I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to connect with an agent - their service got me through to SSA in under 20 minutes. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Saved me so much frustration!
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Lauren Zeb
•Age 83 as the break-even point is really helpful context - thanks for sharing your experience. And I appreciate the tip about Claimyr. I've been trying to call SSA for days with no luck, so I'll definitely check that out. Did the agent you spoke with have good knowledge about this specific suspension situation?
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Anthony Young
just wondering why you didn't just wait until 70 to begin with? thats what i did and got the full 32% increase (i was born before 1960 so my FRA was 66).
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Lauren Zeb
•That would have been the ideal strategy in hindsight. My original plan was actually to wait until 70, but my wife had some health issues last year that forced her to stop working earlier than planned. We needed the income, so I started my benefits at FRA. Now that things have stabilized, I was hoping to go back to the delayed credits plan.
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Ella Thompson
This is why the whole SS system drives me CRAZY!!! All these complicated rules that no one explains properly. You probably got bad advice to begin with. Whenever I call SSA I get a different answer depending on who answers. The whole system needs to be simplified!!!
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Aurora Lacasse
•EXACTLY!!!! My local office told me one thing and the national number told me something completely different about spousal benefits. Meanwhile normal people just trying to retire get caught in the middle!
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Charlotte White
One strategy worth considering: If your wife's health is stable now and she could return to work (even part-time), you could potentially suspend your benefits for the delayed credits while her income replaces the lost spousal top-up. Then when you reach 70, you'd restart with the higher amount, and she could reduce her work hours or stop entirely. Alternatively, if you have other retirement savings, you could temporarily draw more from those accounts during the suspension period to cover the gap. This approach works best if you expect longevity, as the increased benefit continues for the rest of your life and would also be the basis for her survivor benefit if you predecease her.
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Lauren Zeb
•These are excellent suggestions. My wife has actually been considering some part-time consulting work, and we do have some savings we could tap. The survivor benefit point is especially important - I hadn't considered that delaying would also increase her survivor benefit if I die first. That might tip the scales toward suspending despite the short-term hit.
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Matthew Sanchez
One more thing to consider - when you die (sorry to be morbid), your wife will receive the higher of her own benefit or your benefit as a survivor benefit. So increasing your benefit through delayed retirement credits would give her a higher survivor benefit for her lifetime. This is why financial advisors often recommend the higher-earning spouse delay as long as possible, especially if the wife is younger or expected to outlive the husband (statistically common).
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Ella Thompson
•This is actually the most important point that everyone misses! My mom is now getting my dad's full benefit as a survivor and thank goodness he waited until 70 to claim. Makes a HUGE difference in her monthly check now that she's alone. Sometimes you have to think long-term with SS decisions.
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Lauren Zeb
Thank you all for the helpful responses. I really appreciate the different perspectives. I'm going to try calling SSA to discuss our specific numbers, and I'll use that Claimyr service since regular calls haven't worked. Based on your comments, I'm leaning toward not suspending since we do need the current income, but I'll run all the calculations first, especially considering the survivor benefit aspect. This forum has been incredibly helpful!
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