Only Considering Your Own Benefits
Too many people make the mistake of not considering other benefits they may be entitled to, especially those who were stay-at-home parents. In this case, you may not have earned the necessary amount of credits in order to even qualify for Social security, so your plan might be to work for longer in order to make up for lost time.
Or, in some cases, some people may just give up entirely and just accept the lowered benefits that they are entitled to if they’ve accumulated at least 40 credits.
But before you do that, consider the fact that you could qualify for Social Security benefits under your spouse’s work record. Of course, first, you need to check how much you would be eligible to receive yourself, then check how much you would receive under your spouse.
Even if you’re divorced you could still claim benefits under your ex-spouse’s earnings record but only if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, if you are unmarried and if you are 62 or older. Furthermore, your ex-spouse must be eligible to receive Social Security retirement or disability benefits- if they aren’t, why would you?
So, to put it simply, if your benefits from your work would be smaller than what you’d receive under your ex’s records, make sure to claim theirs- and don’t worry. They won’t find out about it as they won’t even receive a notice of this happening and it won’t cut their benefits down either.
