Strategies for couples to claim maximum amount from Social Security

Married couples have an advantage when it comes to claiming Social Security: greater flexibility to time their benefits to maximize them.

Here are some strategies to do so.

Say you decide that delaying benefits until age 70 for a larger payout is in your best interest, but covering expenses in the interim will be a challenge. If you’re married, there’s a strategy you can use to bridge the gap.

Consider having the lower-earning spouse file for benefits at full retirement age, or even as early as 62 if necessary.

Use the lower-earning spouse’s benefits, along with income from other sources, to pay expenses while the higher earner’s benefits — which will get the biggest boost from delayed-retirement credits — continue to grow until the higher earner turns 70. This strategy could also enable married couples to get the most out of their survivor benefits.

A surviving spouse who has reached full retirement age is eligible for up to 100% of the deceased spouse’s benefit or, if the deceased spouse had not yet filed for benefits, 100% of the amount the deceased spouse would have received had he or she filed.

While having the higher earner wait until age 70 to apply for Social Security will increase survivor benefits, it won’t affect spousal benefits, which allow the lower-earning spouse to receive benefits based on the higher earner’s work record. The most a spouse can receive in spousal benefits is 50% of the higher earner’s primary insurance amount, which is the amount that spouse is entitled to at full retirement age.

a widow or widower, you can file for survivor benefits as early as age 60. But in that case, the benefits will be reduced by 29%.

If your own benefit will be less than the survivor’s benefit, a better strategy is to file for your own benefits at age 62 and switch to survivor benefits when you reach full

If you’re

retirement age, which is when those benefits reach their maximum, says Michelle Gessner, a certified financial planner with Gessner Wealth Strategies in Houston. (Survivor benefits aren’t eligible for delayed-retirement credits, so there’s no upside to waiting until age 70.)

“Taking your own benefit at 62 doesn’t preclude the survivor’s benefit from growing in the background, which is typically not the case with other benefits offered through Social Security,” she says.

Conversely, if your own benefit will be larger, you could claim survivor benefits as early as 60 and allow your own benefits — which are eligible for delayed credits — to grow until you reach age 70, at which point you could switch to your own benefits.