Your Social Security by Tom Margenau

Q: Both my husband and I are pushing 60 years old. My husband has always made very good money and has paid the maximum into Social Security. I have been a stay-at-home wife and mother all of my married life. I have about 30 quarters of Social Security coverage on my own record from work I did before we were married. So, I know I won't qualify for my own Social Security and will have to settle for spousal benefits on my husband's account. But I am thinking of getting a job to get my 40 quarters to qualify for my own Social Security. Do you think this is a good idea?

A: If you're looking for work because you want to earn a little money on your own, or because you want to get out of the house, or because you'll get some medical coverage or other benefits from working, then I think it's a great idea.

But if you take a job just to boost your own Social Security account, as your e-mail implied you wanted to do, then you're wasting your time and throwing away whatever Social Security taxes will be deducted from your paycheck.

That's because you will never be able to make enough money — and never pay enough Social Security taxes — to get your own Social Security account to exceed what you'll be due in wife's benefits (and someday widow's benefits) on your husband's record.

Here is an example to illustrate my point. Let's say your husband will get $2,600 per month from Social Security. (That's close to the amount that would be paid to someone who has paid maximum Social Security taxes.) As his wife, you would be due up to half of that, or $1,300 per month, in spousal benefits. If you do work and get the 40 quarters of credit you need to qualify for your own Social Security, you would receive a very small retirement benefit — perhaps around $200 per month. The Social Security Administration would pay you that $200 retirement benefit and supplement it with $1,100 on your husband's record.

So you end up with the same total benefit ($1,300 per month) whether you qualify for your own Social Security or not.

And taking my example down the road a bit after your husband dies, all you need to do is change that $1,300 wife's benefit into a $2,600 monthly widow's benefits. And once again, if you qualified for $200 per month from your own retirement account, you'd get that plus $2,400 per month in widow's benefits, for a total of $2,600 per month — the same amount you would be due without your own Social Security coverage.

If you were 10 or 20 years younger, I might suggest you take a job to qualify for benefits on your own Social Security account. And even then, I'd recommend that not so much to boost your retirement benefit, but because working on your own would give you potentially valuable disability coverage from Social Security. That coverage is sometimes a lifesaver for younger people. But at your age, disability coverage is no longer a factor because you will soon qualify for Social Security based on the fact that you are a dependent wife of a Social Security retiree.

Q: I am getting widow's benefits from Social Security. I never worked enough to get my own Social Security, but I am now working part time making about $6,000 per year. Will the Social Security taxes I'm paying ever increase my widow's benefits?

A: No. The widow's benefit you are receiving is based on your husband's Social Security record. In other words, it's based on the earnings posted to his Social Security number.

Now that you're working, those earnings are being recorded under your own Social Security number. If you worked long enough, they could potentially build up your own account to the point where you might be due some benefits on your own record. But it is highly unlikely you would ever make enough money to get your own Social Security retirement benefit to top what you're already getting in widow's benefits from your husband's Social Security record.

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