You get a choice of when to claim Social Security, with benefits available beginning at age 62, although your full retirement age will be much later than that.
The conventional wisdom is that claiming Social Security earlier makes sense if you are in poor health. When you put off claiming benefits, you get higher checks, but it takes a while for the higher monthly payments to make up for the income you passed up by not claiming benefits right away. If you won't live long enough to get many larger Social Security checks, claiming early and getting as much money as possible right away could make sense.
However, there's an important caveat to this. If you are married, putting off Social Security benefits when you are in poor health could actually be the better move. Here's why.
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A delay could save your spouse a lot of financial hardship
When you are married, your spouse becomes entitled to Social Security survivor benefits if you pass away. And these survivor benefits are directly affected by the choices you made regarding claiming your benefits.
If you have claimed your Social Security early, your spouse's survivor benefits will be based on the reduced benefit you were receiving. Since claiming Social Security ahead of full retirement age can reduce your benefits by up to 30% depending on how old you were when you filed for benefits, your spouse could end up facing a major reduction in their survivor benefits if you started checks early due to your ill health.
By contrast, if you claim Social Security later than full retirement age, your spouse's survivor benefits will be based on the increased benefit your delayed claim entitled you to. Since you can increase your monthly check amount by 2/3 of 1% monthly or 8% annually until age 70, your spouse could end up receiving a lot more money.
And if you ended up passing away before claiming Social Security at all, your spouse's benefits would be based on your primary insurance amount or standard benefit. That would be higher than the amount you'd have left them with if you made an early claim.
Consider delaying your benefits for the sake of your spouse
Your spouse's own retirement benefits may be higher than the survivor benefits they are entitled to, depending on how much money they made. But, if you were the higher earner, the fact they can receive up to 100% of your standard benefit or the amount you were receiving before death means that your benefit usually is more than theirs would be.
Unfortunately, if you shrunk your check by claiming early, you would leave them with much less than they otherwise would have been eligible to receive. And this could create serious hardship. The death of a spouse can always be tough for the survivor's finances because they go from two Social Security checks coming into the household to just one. You don't want to make this situation even worse.
So, unless your spouse made the same or more money than you, you should seriously consider putting off Social Security as long as possible if you are in poor health. Yes, you may give up some income during your lifetime, but you'll be able to take care of your partner, so it may be well worth the sacrifice.
