The near-last sentence is of most interest to me:
And there’s this: Once you reach full retirement age, you can choose to take benefits as a spouse, while deferring your own earned benefit until later. So in a two-income marriage where the partners are the same age, one might claim benefits at 66. The other could then claim 50 percent of those benefits as a spouse, while allowing his or her earned benefit to build until 70, buying longevity insurance for both of them.
So assume a couple (George and Martha) where George is, say, two years older then Martha, and they can live on their savings (or just keep working) while seeking to maximize their social security. It's 2011, George is currently 67 and hasn't applied yet; Martha is 65 and hasn't applied for social security either (of course each of them filed for Medicare as they turned 65).
John had he quit work five years ago at age 62 could have started collecting, say $2,000 per month, or even if he didn't quit work he could have started collecting, say $2,300 per month last year at age 66, but he's done neither. Martha has an earnings record of her own but she's also decided to put off applying for her own benefit.
1. In 2012, as soon as Martha attains age 66 (George then being 68), George should "file and suspend" meaning he's still not going to start actually collecting benefits.
2. At the same time (in 2012), Martha applies for 50% of George's available age 68 benefits (remembering he's not actually collecting yet). So if George could have had $2,500 per month at age 68, Martha starts getting $1,250 per month.
[edited to say, point #2 above may only work for Martha if she doesn't have a significant work record of her own - - I've read elsewhere that when Martha's own retirement benefit is greater than 50% of George's, it may not be possible for her to claim the smaller benefit, meaning her only option during George's lifetime is to file for her own benefit at whatever age she chooses to start taking it.]
3. Then in 2014 when George attains age 70 he applies and starts collecting his own benefit (say $3,000 per month)
(and per the note above if Martha has a significant work record of her own, maybe the only way for Martha to start getting a benefit separate from George's is to file for her own retirement benefit, as early as age 66 if she was still working, or in 2014 at age 68, 2015 at age 69, or 2016 at age 70).
4. Then in 2016 when Martha attains age 70 if her own retirement benefit at age 70 is, say, $2,000 per month she can file for that
if she didn't apply earlier (so together they are collecting $5,000 = George's $3,000 plus Martha's $2,000 per month).
5. Finally, suppose one of them dies five years later, in 2021. If Martha is the one who dies, George continues to get his own $3,000 per month. If George is the one who dies, Martha is allowed to take his benefit in lieu of her own, so the $3,000 continues as her benefit.
