Spousal Benefits — The Numbers

Maximum share of the worker PIA

50%

Aged couple, both receiving

$3,208/mo

Delayed credits on a spousal benefit

none

The 2026 adjustment

2.8%

A spousal benefit tops a person up to half the worker’s primary insurance amount, where their own benefit is smaller. Two asymmetries catch people out. The reduction for claiming early is steeper on a spousal benefit than on a worker’s own. And delayed retirement credits do not apply to it at all — waiting past full retirement age raises a worker’s own benefit but does nothing for a spousal one.

The cost-of-living adjustment applies to the underlying primary insurance amount, so the spousal benefit moves with it at the same 2.8% in 2026. Where both members of a couple receive benefits, SSA’s published average for the pair is $3,208 a month, up from $3,120.

Two Part B premiums come out of a couple’s payments, not one — at $202.90 each that is $405.80 a month before anything else. Run your own pair of amounts.

Full retirement age by birth year governs when the unreduced share becomes payable.

The other programmes

• Social Security Retirement

  The rates, the formula and the COLA as they apply to a retired worker.

• Social Security Disability (SSDI)

  The disability rates, the work thresholds and how the COLA reaches a disabled worker.

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

  The federal benefit rate, the resource limits and why SSI has no Medicare premium deducted.

• Survivors Benefits

  Widow and widower rates, the family maximum, and how the COLA applies to a survivor payment.

• Children's Benefits

  What a child on a worker record receives, and the family maximum that caps it.

The rates behind these figures

• Average benefitsand the distribution
• Maximum benefit$4,152 at FRA
• Bend pointsthe formula
• SSI rateevery year
• The 2026 COLA2.8%
• Your amount24 FRA years too