How Married Couples Can Get More Out of Social Security in 2026
Key Points
There are advantages to being married from a Social Security standpoint.
Having the higher earner delay Social Security could pay off for your household.
You may also be entitled to benefits you never knew existed.
For single retirees, Social Security often serves as a crucial source of income. The same can easily hold true for married retirees. Only married couples have an opportunity to strategize together to make the most of Social Security.
If you're retiring or nearing retirement in 2026, you may recognize that between rising costs and longer life expectancies, getting more from Social Security matters a lot. Here's how to work together to make that happen.
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Coordinate your filing strategies
If you and your spouse are both eligible for Social Security based on your respective wage histories, you have a great opportunity to set yourselves up with a large amount of guaranteed household income. For every year you each delay your claim past full retirement age until age 70, your benefits get a permanent 8% boost.
If it doesn't work to have both of you delay Social Security, another option is to have the higher earner in your household file at 70 while the lower earner claims benefits at full retirement age or, if needed, earlier. That way, the 8% boost gets applied to the larger sum, resulting in more money.
For example, if you're entitled to $2,000 a month in Social Security at a full retirement age of 67, filing at 70 will give you an extra $480 per month. If your spouse is entitled to $3,000 a month at 67, filing at 70 will give you an additional $720 per month. And while the higher earner delays, the lower-earning spouse's benefits can bring some income into the fold at a time when you may be semi-retiring or retiring fully.
Don't forget about spousal and survivor benefits
It may be that only one person in your household qualifies for Social Security based on an earnings history. If that's the case, the second person may be entitled to spousal benefits.
Spousal benefits allow the non-working spouse to receive up to 50% of the eligible spouse's benefit at full retirement age. So if you never worked but your spouse did, and they're eligible for $3,000 a month in Social Security at their full retirement age, you may be eligible for $1,500 a month at your full retirement age.
You should also know that if you outlive your spouse, your spousal benefits should convert to survivor benefits. At that point, you're eligible for up to 100% of your spouse's benefit.
This is another reason why it can be advantageous for the higher earner in the household to delay Social Security. Even if the lower earner doesn't end up needing spousal benefits because they worked enough to get Social Security themself, when one spouse passes, the surviving spouse is generally entitled to the larger of the two benefits.
For married couples, getting more out of Social Security is a matter of strategizing and planning. By coordinating your claims and understanding spousal and survival benefits, you can potentially increase your lifetime Social Security by quite a lot of money.
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