Social Security Spousal and Survivor Benefits Calculator

How the spousal benefit works

The spousal benefit tops up a lower earner's check to as much as half of the higher earner's full retirement age amount. It is not paid on top of your own benefit in full. SSA pays your own benefit first, then adds the difference between half of your spouse's amount and your own full amount.

Say your spouse's full benefit is $2,400 and yours is $800. Half of $2,400 is $1,200, so the top-up is $400. At your full retirement age you'd get $800 plus $400, a total of $1,200. If your own full benefit were $1,300, more than half of your spouse's, there would be no top-up at all.

• Your spouse has to file first. A married spouse's top-up can't start until the higher earner has applied for their own benefit.
• Claiming early shrinks both parts. At 62 the top-up is cut to 65% of its full amount, so a spousal benefit at 62 is 32.5% of the other person's full amount rather than 50%.
• Waiting past full retirement age doesn't grow the top-up. Only your own part earns the 8% a year for waiting until 70.
• Filing for one is filing for both. For anyone born on or after January 2, 1954, applying for either benefit counts as applying for both. The old strategy of taking a spousal benefit alone while your own grows is gone.

Benefits for a divorced spouse

An ex-spouse can get the same top-up on a former husband's or wife's record if:

• the marriage lasted at least 10 years,
• you are not remarried,
• you are 62 or older, and your ex is too, and
• your own full benefit is less than half of theirs.

If you have been divorced for at least two years, you don't have to wait for your ex to apply. And what you collect takes nothing away from your ex or their current spouse. SSA doesn't tell your ex that you've applied.

How the survivor benefit works

A surviving spouse can get the deceased's benefit, not just half of it. The amount depends on two things: the survivor's age when the benefit starts, and what the person who died was entitled to.

• The survivor's age. It starts at 71.5% at 60 and rises evenly to 100% at the survivor's full retirement age, which is 66 to 67 and runs two years behind the retirement one. Over 80% at 63, over 90% at 65.
• If the deceased waited past full retirement age, the survivor inherits the bigger check, delayed credits included.
• If the deceased claimed early, a survivor who waits to their own full retirement age gets the larger of what the deceased was getting or 82.5% of the deceased's full amount. A survivor who starts early gets their age-reduced percentage, capped at that same figure.
• If the deceased died before claiming, the survivor's benefit is figured from the deceased's full amount, plus any credits earned by waiting past full retirement age.

A survivor gets the larger of the two checks, never both. But the two benefits can be taken at different times, and that order is where most of the money is.

Taking survivor and retirement benefits in the right order

Unlike spousal benefits, survivor benefits aren't caught by the filing-for-one-is-filing-for-both rule. So a survivor with a work record of their own can start one benefit, let the other grow, and switch later. SSA's own example is starting the survivor benefit early and switching to your own retirement benefit at 70, when it is at its largest. The opposite order works too: take your own reduced benefit at 62 and switch to the full survivor benefit at full retirement age.

Which order totals more depends on the size of the two benefits and how long you live, which is why the calculator tries every combination and shows the totals side by side.

Who qualifies as a survivor

• Age 60 or older, or 50 to 59 with a disability.
• Married at least 9 months before the death.
• Not remarried before 60 (or before 50 with a disability). Remarrying after 60 doesn't end the benefit.
• An ex-spouse qualifies the same way if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.
• Someone caring for the deceased's child under 16, or a disabled child, can qualify at any age and without the length-of-marriage rule.

Teachers, police and other public workers: the offset is gone

Until 2024, a spouse or survivor with a government pension from work that didn't pay into Social Security often had the spousal or survivor benefit cut by two-thirds of the pension, or wiped out. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, ended that rule, the Government Pension Offset, for benefits from January 2024 on. If you never applied because of it, you may need to apply now. For a survivor benefit, that means a phone call to SSA.

When someone dies: the first steps

• The funeral home usually tells SSA. You normally don't have to report the death yourself, but you do have to apply for survivor benefits.
• Apply by phone or in person. The survivor application isn't online. Call 1-800-772-1213. Apply promptly: some survivor benefits are paid only from the month you apply.
• The $255 lump-sum death payment goes to a surviving spouse, or in some cases a child. It has to be claimed within two years.
• Have these ready: proof of death, both Social Security numbers, your birth and marriage certificates (divorce papers for an ex-spouse), and the deceased's most recent W-2 or self-employment tax return.
• Already on a spousal benefit? SSA switches it to a survivor benefit when the death is reported. If you get benefits on your own record, you have to apply to see whether the survivor benefit is larger.

What this calculator leaves out

• Working before full retirement age. Spousal and survivor benefits face the same earnings limit as retirement benefits. The earnings limit calculator shows what work does to the checks.
• Children and the family maximum. Benefits for children, and a spouse caring for them, are limited by a family maximum. An ex-spouse doesn't count toward it.
• Disability benefits, and the special rules for disabled widows and widowers from 50.
• Raises. Everything is in today's dollars. The yearly cost-of-living raise lifts all of these checks alike.
• Exact birthdays and the deceased's final-year earnings. SSA works in whole months and may refigure the deceased's record to include the year they died.

To compare claiming ages for a couple who are both living, including the survivor check each choice leaves behind, use the break-even calculator. All the tools are on the calculators page.

Before you file

This page does the arithmetic SSA describes. It is not advice, and I'm not a financial adviser. Ask SSA for a benefit estimate on the other person's record before you decide, especially after a death: they will look up the exact figures. Call 1-800-772-1213.