Last Updated: April 18, 2025 If you don't have enough Social Security credits to get benefits on your own work record or your own benefit is small, you may be able to receive benefits as a spouse. Your spouse must be receiving benefits for you to get benefits on their work record.
If you're eligible for retirement and spouse's benefits, you must apply for both, and you'll receive a combined benefit equaling the higher spouse's amount. This requirement is called “deemed filing” because when you apply for one benefit you are “deemed” to have applied for the other benefit.
The spousal benefit can be as much as half of the worker's "primary insurance amount," depending on the spouse's age at retirement. If the spouse begins receiving benefits before "normal (or full) retirement age," the spouse will receive a reduced benefit.
Spouses and ex-spouses Payments start at 71.5% of your spouse's benefit and increase the longer you wait to apply. For example, you might get: Over 75% at age 61.
Randall, in order for your wife to be eligible for spousal benefits, you need to have already filed for your own benefits. If that's the case and your wife is at least 62 years old, she can apply for her spousal benefit.
A: Under Florida law, alimony is usually ordered for long term marriages – over 12-14 years long. For a short term marriage such as 3 years, alimony is rare, if not impossible.
The Florida Alimony Reform 2023 brought significant changes to how alimony is handled in the state. The most notable change is the elimination of permanent alimony. This means that courts can no longer award alimony that lasts indefinitely. Instead, the focus is on limited-term support.
As an example, in Florida alimony will rarely exceed 40% of the gross income of the spouse paying alimony in long term marriages, and in marriages lasting less than seven years the amount of alimony will usually not exceed 20% of the gross income of the spouse paying alimony.
What qualifies a recipient spouse for alimony in Florida are several factors, among them: The standard of living established during the marriage. The length of the marriage. Both spouse's financial resources, including the non-marital, marital property, assets, and liabilities.
Marital assets include things like the marital home, retirement accounts, investments, cars, and personal possessions bought jointly or individually during the marriage. Credit card debt and loans taken out in both spouses' names are also divided. The goal is an equal 50/50 split.