What Are the Best Social Security Spousal Claiming Strategies

I am actually glad to see some of these loopholes closed up. I would prefer this which always favored married people over singles who actually have many of the same expenses of couples to be end than to have SS cut in the future for all. Treat each individual the same and don't give preferential treatment to someone because they are married!

Just another twist on this (at least a few years ago when I faced this situation), if a spouse is on disability...that disability benefit will be converted to the person's Social Security benefit at full retirement age. The disabled person won't have the option of deferring until age 70. If someone in a couple is receiving disability, it's worth double-checking the current rules.

Kate's comment is a good illustration of the complexity of the claiming decision and how everyone's situation is a little different. My wife was able to take advantage of the Restricted Benefit before it was closed out. But because her earning history wasn't very high, the difference between the spousal benefit and what she got for waiting until age 70 was negligible. I was not old enough to take advantage of File and Suspend, that one was too good to be fair to everyone else.

I appreciate and agree with Pat R’s comment. I was surprised to learn of these strategies for couples when attending various pre-retirement sessions. As a single (divorced) person, I was rather annoyed since a lower income spouse or non-working spouse already is eligible for benefits. I would just appreciate rolling back the taxes on SS income that Reagan passed to pay for his tax cuts for the rich.

@Lisa. Here's a brief summary of SS changes by Pres: https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/social-security/what-happened-to-social-security-under-each-president/
Key points of note: Truman/Kennedy made it easier to qualify; broadest expansion under Ike; biggest benefit increase under Johnson with Medicare; COLA established under Nixon; Ford made changes focused on shoring up protections for kids. First and only actual CUT of SS benefits under Carter. Noting the blowback Carter got, under Reagan, they moved the retirement age out to more closely align with updated life expectancy, made self-employed folks pay taxes to more equally reflect what was paid on behalf of an employee, and established a 50% tax on SS for folks in the highest brackets. Under Clinton, that was expanded to 85% - and the really bad part of that is it's not indexed, so...... what started under Reagan as a tax on the Rich, got expanded amounts under Clinton and ignored indexing, so it now catches a much broader number of retirees. Clinton also denied disability benefits to those with drug or alcohol dependency; WBush expanded Medicare by creating Part D; Obama reduced the subsidy to Part D for higher earners and redirected a good bit of Medicare to pay for the ACA; and Trump stopped collecting student loan debt from those on SS unless they had other income to pay it from.

We hear a lot about SS being the "3rd rail" but every Pres except HWBush and Biden have had legislation that modifies it somehow, Carter being the only one who openly decreased it, although clearly the Reagan tax made folks in high tax brackets pay some taxes on it - effectively reducing their benefit, and Clinton broadly expanding that effectively reduces benefits for anyone not in the 10% tax bracket.

When Pols start talking about increasing benefits, rolling the Clinton era changes back to the Reagan era tax - 50% of SS for those only in the highest tax brackets - would be much more beneficial than any benefit increase they talk about. But we absolutely don't want to undo that provision, unless the goal is to let the gazillionaires keep all their SS under the idea of they paid in they should get back.