The length of your marriage can have implications on what benefits you may be eligible for under an ex-spouse’s benefits. Longer term marriages, those that are 10 years or longer, provide extra coverage for an ex-spouse. Below is a description of the 10-year marriage rule provided by the Social Security Administration
If you’re divorced and were married at least 10 years, you’re eligible on your ex’s Social Security record
- Divorced women who were married at least 10 years are eligible for Social Security based on their ex’s record, if they are unmarried when they become eligible for Social Security.
- Some women sign divorce decrees relinquishing their rights to Social Security on their ex’s record. Those clauses in divorce decrees are never enforced.
- Any benefits paid to a divorced spouse DO NOT reduce payments made to the ex or any payments due the ex’s current spouse.
- Generally, the same payment rules apply to divorced wives and widows as to current wives and widows. That means most divorced women collect their own Social Security while the ex is alive, but they can apply for higher widow’s rates when they die.
No one is obligated to take benefits under a spouse’s record. If a worker earned more money and is eligible to receive benefits on their own record as well as a spouse’s record Social Security will pay the larger of the two amounts.
