Social Security benefits for spouse
Can you collect your husbands Social Security benefits and mine combined ?
Terry Says
{Oops — update and correction to widow’s benefit.] No, you can each collect your own SS. So if you worked and are eligible on your own record, you will receive your own check. If you didn’t make the required 40 quarters of payments into the system, you won’t get benefits.
If you each worked enough to qualify, you will each receive a check every month.
As a widow, they will give you your husband’s benefit OR your own — whichever is greater.
And if you’re divorced and have not remarried, and were married to your spouse for more than 10 years, you can collect on your spouse’s SS account — without reducing the spouse’s own payment.
