How a divorced person may collect Social Security on a former spouse’s work record. November 2026
If you are going through a divorce in Lane County after a long marriage, Social Security may not be the first thing on your mind. But for many people, especially a spouse who stayed home or earned less, it can be one of the most valuable things to understand. Federal law lets a divorced person collect a Social Security benefit based on a former spouse’s work record. Here is how it works, in plain English.
The key number is ten. To collect on an ex-spouse’s record, your marriage must have lasted at least 10 years before the divorce became final. The Social Security Administration counts the marriage as long enough if the divorce became final on or after your 10th wedding anniversary.
That timing can matter. If you are close to the 10-year mark, the date your divorce judgment is signed can decide whether you qualify. It is worth raising with your lawyer before the case wraps up.
In addition to the 10-year marriage, you generally must:
Your ex-spouse does not have to have started collecting. If your ex is at least 62 and has enough work credits, and you have been divorced for at least two years, you can apply even if your ex has not filed yet.
The full divorced-spouse benefit is up to one-half of your ex-spouse’s full retirement benefit (what Social Security calls the “primary insurance amount”). You get the full one-half only if you wait until your own full retirement age to claim.
If you claim earlier, the benefit is permanently reduced. For someone whose full retirement age is 67, claiming at 62 pays about 32.5 percent of the ex-spouse’s full benefit instead of 50 percent. Unlike your own retirement benefit, a spousal benefit does not keep growing if you wait past full retirement age, so there is no extra reward for delaying beyond that point.
This is the part that surprises many people. Your divorced-spouse benefit does not reduce your ex-spouse’s benefit. It also does not reduce the benefit of your ex’s current spouse, if there is one. Social Security pays it separately.
That means collecting on an ex’s record is not a fight over a shared pot of money. It is a federal benefit you may simply be entitled to.
If you were born on January 2, 1954 or later, a rule called “deemed filing” applies. When you apply for either your own retirement benefit or a divorced-spouse benefit, Social Security treats you as applying for both. You receive the higher combined amount, but you can no longer take a spousal benefit now and switch to your own larger benefit later. Because the choice is locked in, the timing of your claim matters.
A surviving divorced spouse can receive even more. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be able to collect a survivor benefit of up to 100 percent of what your ex-spouse was receiving. Survivor benefits can start as early as age 60, or 50 if you are disabled. They start at about 71.5 percent of the full amount at age 60 and increase the longer you wait, up to your full retirement age.
Remarriage matters here. If you remarry after age 60 (or after 50 if you are disabled), you can still collect the survivor benefit. The deemed-filing rule described above does not apply to survivor benefits, so there can be room to plan which benefit to take first.
For many years, people with a government pension from work not covered by Social Security, such as some public-sector jobs, saw their spousal and survivor benefits reduced or wiped out. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed in January 2025, repealed those reductions (known as the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision) for benefits payable for months after December 2023. If you or your ex has a non-covered public pension, the benefit picture may look very different than it did a few years ago.
For federal income tax, the benefit is taxed to the person who has the legal right to receive it. If you receive a divorced-spouse benefit, it counts as your income, not your ex’s. Depending on your total income, up to 50 or 85 percent of your Social Security may be taxable. You will receive your own Form SSA-1099 each year.
A related point: for divorce judgments entered after 2018, spousal support (alimony) is no longer deductible by the person who pays it and is not taxable income to the person who receives it.
Social Security is a federal benefit, and federal law protects it. An Oregon judge cannot divide Social Security benefits between spouses the way a retirement account or pension can be divided. The Oregon Supreme Court has also said a court cannot make an offsetting award of other property based on the value of a spouse’s Social Security benefits.
That does not mean Social Security is ignored. Within limits, an Oregon court may consider whether a spouse will or will not receive Social Security when it decides what property division is “just and proper.” In the leading Oregon case, Herald and Steadman, one spouse had a government pension and no Social Security, and the other was covered by Social Security. The court approved a property division that took that difference into account. Whether that approach fits your case depends on the facts, including how far off retirement is for each of you.
Social Security income can also be considered in setting spousal support, since support looks at each party’s income. And while benefits are protected from most creditors, federal law does allow them to be garnished to pay child support or alimony.
If your marriage is long, if one of you has a public pension, or if retirement is on the horizon, Social Security can affect how you approach property, support, and even the date of your judgment. Before you finalize anything, it helps to know what each of you can expect to receive. You can get an estimate of your own benefit from a my Social Security account at ssa.gov.
Crawley Law helps families in Eugene, Springfield, and throughout Lane County navigate divorce, including how retirement and Social Security fit into a fair outcome. If you have questions about your situation, contact our office to schedule a consultation.
This post is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Social Security rules are set by federal law and can change. For decisions about your benefits, contact the Social Security Administration. For advice about your divorce, talk with a lawyer about your specific facts.
We help families in Eugene, Springfield, and throughout Lane County understand how retirement and Social Security fit into a fair outcome.
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