Divorced Spouse Benefit
The Social Security divorced spouse benefit allows a divorced individual to claim up to 50% of their former spouse's Primary Insurance Amount if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, the claimant is currently unmarried, and both parties are at least 62 years old.
The divorced spouse benefit is an often-overlooked Social Security provision that provides meaningful retirement income support for individuals whose marriages of significant duration ended in divorce. Congress established the divorced spouse benefit in 1965, recognizing that a spouse who had devoted years to a household partnership during a long marriage retained a legitimate claim to a portion of the Social Security benefits generated during the marriage, regardless of how the marriage ended.
The core eligibility requirements are: the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years; the claimant must be currently unmarried; the claimant must be at least 62; and the former spouse must be at least 62 and entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefits. Critically, the former spouse does not need to have already filed for their own benefit — if the divorce occurred more than two years ago, the divorced spouse can claim their divorced spouse benefit independently, regardless of whether the former spouse has begun collecting.
The benefit amount works exactly like the regular spousal benefit: the maximum is 50% of the former spouse's PIA, with actuarial reductions for claiming before the divorced spouse's own FRA. If the divorced spouse has their own earned Social Security benefit, deemed filing rules require simultaneous filing, and the SSA pays the higher of the two benefit amounts, not both combined.
Multiple former spouses can each independently claim the divorced spouse benefit based on the same worker's record without affecting each other's benefits or the primary worker's own benefit. A divorced spouse's benefit is funded from the Social Security trust funds, not directly from the primary worker's account. The primary worker faces no reduction in their own benefit, and no communication between the former spouses is required or generated by the filing process.
Remarriage terminates eligibility for the divorced spouse benefit. However, if a subsequent marriage ends in death, divorce, or annulment, eligibility for the original divorced spouse benefit can potentially be restored, subject to SSA rules.
For anyone who was married for close to or more than 10 years before divorcing, verifying eligibility for the divorced spouse benefit is an important step in Social Security claiming analysis. The benefit can provide a foundation of retirement income for individuals who left the workforce during the marriage and have a limited earnings record of their own.