Social Security After Divorce
Can I collect Social Security on my former spouse's record, and how much? Every piece below can be linked to, so it opens in a window on your reader's screen, current as of the record. No form to fill in.
2026 law · Reviewed September 6, 2026 · The full page, with methodology and sources · the terms · All tools
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The marriage's length, your status, the divorce's age, both full benefits, and a claiming age in; eligibility and the monthly benefit, living and deceased, out. In a frame it carries no cookies, no tracking, and a visible link back to the methodology. Your site has to allow frames; most do. The link that opens it in a small window is on the professionals page.
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- In plain words.
- If you were married at least ten years and are not married now, you can collect a Social Security benefit based on your former spouse's earnings: up to half their full benefit while they are alive, and up to their whole benefit after they die. They do not have to agree, are not told, and lose nothing, and neither does anyone they married later. This tool checks the conditions and shows the benefit at your claiming age, alongside your own.
- Why it matters.
- Many divorced people, especially those who spent years out of the workforce, have a larger benefit available on a former spouse's record than on their own and never claim it, because nobody told them.
- An example.
- Married twelve years, divorced five years ago, former spouse's full benefit $3,000, your own $1,000: at your full retirement age you receive $1,500 a month, your own $1,000 plus a $500 top-up. If your former spouse dies, the survivor benefit is up to $3,000 a month.
- Where it stops.
- It checks the rules that turn on years and ages. Social Security decides on the records, and a divorce less than two years old needs the former spouse to have filed. It does not model a disabled surviving divorced spouse at 50, or the government pension offset for public employees.
The facts
Six quotable sentences on benefits on a former spouse's record.
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- A divorced spouse can collect on a former spouse's record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, the claimant is unmarried and at least 62, and the former spouse is entitled to benefits, or is at least 62 and the divorce is at least 2 years old (20 CFR 404.331). The former spouse is not told and is not affected.
- The benefit is the same as a married spouse's: up to half the former spouse's full benefit, reduced for claiming before your own full retirement age, never increased for waiting past it, and paid on top of your own only as the excess (404.333, 404.410(b)).
- Example: a former spouse's full benefit of $3,000 and your own of $1,000, claimed at your full retirement age: $1,500 a month, your own $1,000 plus a $500 top-up.
- If the former spouse dies, a surviving divorced spouse of a ten-year marriage has the same survivor benefit as a widow or widower: the former spouse's full benefit, reduced from 60 (404.336). Remarriage after 60 does not end it.
- Remarriage before then ends the divorced spouse's benefit while the new marriage lasts; a later divorce or death restores it. Several former spouses can each collect on the same record without reducing one another or the worker.
- Claiming on a former spouse's record is treated as claiming your own benefit too, so the timing rules of the spousal tool apply: no reward for waiting past full retirement age on the spousal part, and a reduction for claiming early on both.
The conditions
What has to be true, and what the benefit is.
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| Condition | Former spouse living | Former spouse deceased |
|---|---|---|
| Marriage lasted | 10 years or more | 10 years or more |
| Your marital status | Unmarried | Unmarried, or remarried after 60 |
| Your age | 62 or older | 60 or older (50 if disabled) |
| The former spouse | Entitled to benefits, or 62 and the divorce 2+ years old | Deceased and insured |
| The benefit | Up to 50% of their full benefit, reduced before your full retirement age | Up to 100% of their benefit, reduced from 60 to survivor full retirement age |
| Effect on the former spouse or a new spouse | None | None |
Cite and link.
The clean address, a citation generated from the record so it can never carry a stale review date, and an address for every section so you can point a reader at the exact table or method.
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- Link
- https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce
- Citation
- Considerate Capital, "Social Security After Divorce," reviewed September 6, 2026, https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce.
Link to a section
- The checker https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#calculator
- The facts https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#facts
- The conditions https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#key-numbers
- How the benefit works https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#how-it-works
- Methodology https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#methodology
- Sources https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#sources
- Revision history https://consideratecapital.com/tools/social-security-after-divorce#revision-history
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