Free primer: 62 vs 67 vs 70. Numbers: claiming calculator (your PIA, 62 / FRA / 70). Medicare MAGI: IRMAA two-year lookback. Paid steps assume you already know delaying raises the check, and you want a couples file — who delays, who claims, how the survivor inherits the credit — not a second break-even chart.
Do this in order
Pull both my Social Security statements. Do not guess the check. ssa.gov/myaccount → “Estimated benefits.” You need each person’s primary insurance amount (PIA) at full retirement age, the 35-year earnings record, and any zero years still sitting in the average. A missing year is a $0 year. 2026 COLA is 2.8% (SSA COLA page); a statement printed in 2025 is not this year’s check. If one spouse has a government pension, WEP and GPO are gone — Social Security Fairness Act, P.L. 118-273 (Jan 5, 2025). Do not shrink the PIA with a repealed formula.
Write FRA from the birth year, then the 62 and 70 percents. Born 1960 or later: FRA is 67. Claiming at 62 is 70% of PIA (30% permanent reduction — SSA retirement-age chart). Delayed retirement credits after FRA are 8% per year, 2/3 of 1% per month, and they stop at 70: 124% of PIA (SSA delayed-retirement page). Born 1959: FRA is 66 and 10 months; 1958 is 66 and 8. The single-person break-even vs 67 often lands in the late 70s. That chart is step 0. Married claiming is not two copies of it. The free primer is the three dates; this file is who funds which date.
Name the higher earner. Their delayed credit is the survivor check. Circle the larger PIA. That person’s claiming age is a household insurance purchase, not a “I earned it, I want it at 62” vote. When they die, the survivor can step up to what the deceased was receiving — including delayed credits — and drop the smaller check. Both claiming at 62 is how a long-lived widow inherits a 70% check. If the PIAs are within a few hundred dollars, treat them as co-high and fund delay on whoever has the better health / longer family history.
Size the cash gap to delay the high earner. If the sleeve would be a card, you wanted 62 or 67. Example (not your statement): PIA $2,800 at 67. Delay 67→70 forgoes $2,800 × 36 = $100,800 of checks (ignoring COLA). The raise is $2,800 × 24% = $672/month, so $3,472 at 70. Simple payback: $100,800 / $672 = 150 months ≈ age 82.5, plus COLA on the higher base, plus the survivor option. Fund the gap from a pension, Roth, taxable, or part-time work after FRA (no earnings test). Do not fund it with a 22% card. If Social Security is the rent check and there is no other sleeve, claiming earlier can be rational — that is cash this year, not a failed IQ test.
Spousal is not a second application you file while delaying your own. Restricted application (file only as a spouse, delay your own to 70) closed for anyone born January 2, 1954 or later (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015). File-and-suspend is gone. Deemed filing: asking for one retirement/spousal benefit asks for both. A spouse can receive up to 50% of the worker’s PIA, reduced if claimed before FRA, and only after the worker has filed. Excess spousal is 50% of the high PIA minus the low PIA. Example: high $2,800, low $1,100 → 50% is $1,400, excess $300 — and $0 of that $300 until the high earner files. If the lower earner claims at 62 while the high earner delays, they get only their own reduced benefit until the high earner files.
Map the survivor before you pick a start month. A widow(er) at FRA can receive up to 100% of what the deceased was due, including delayed credits; reduced if claimed as early as 60 (survivor calendar is not the retirement calendar). Divorced: 10-year marriage, unmarried, 62+ for retirement-on-ex, 60+ for survivor-on-ex. The ex’s check does not shrink. The classroom default: high earner delays toward 70 if the gap in step 4 is funded; lower earner claims when they need cash, or at FRA, knowing spousal waits for the high earner to file. Two 62s because “we both paid in” is how the survivor inherits the reduced check.
Earnings test if anyone claims before FRA and still works. 2026 (SSA automatic determinations / COLA page): under FRA all year, $1 withheld for every $2 over $24,480. In the calendar year you reach FRA, $1 for every $3 over $65,160 until the month of FRA. After FRA, unlimited. Withheld months are not a fine — SSA recomputes at FRA — but claiming at 62 then earning $80,000 is how a “I needed the check” plan withholds most of the check. If the plan is to keep the W-2 through 67, do not file at 62. After FRA you can work and collect. 2026 wage base is $184,500; high earnings in the 35-year window can still recompute the PIA even after you claim.
Medicare is a 65 calendar. Claiming is not. Enroll in Part A/B on time even if Social Security is delayed. Missing Part B while not covered by current-employer insurance is a late-enrollment penalty that does not unwind when you later claim. IRMAA (Part B/D surcharge) uses MAGI from two years back — 2026 IRMAA looks at 2024. A Roth conversion in the gap years before claiming can buy lower IRMAA later, or it can shove you over a cliff now. Sequence that in IRMAA planning and Roth conversions, not as a surprise the month you file. Do not delay Medicare because you delayed Social Security.
Taxability of the check is provisional income, and those thresholds are not indexed. Combined income ≈ AGI + tax-exempt interest + 50% of Social Security (IRS Pub. 915). Single $25,000 / $34,000; MFJ $32,000 / $44,000. Above the second number, up to 85% of the benefit is taxable — not 85% tax. A pension that fills MAGI is why two households with the same PIA keep different amounts. Qualified Roth withdrawals are not in AGI, so they do not lift combined income; traditional IRA/401(k) withdrawals do. That is how “a pension or Roth changes the household claiming age.” If 85% of a delayed check will be taxable at 22%, the after-tax raise from delaying is smaller — still usually worth it for the survivor, but run the tax, not the slogan. Withdrawal order lives in tax-efficient withdrawals (still a thin wall; the MAGI piece is RMDs).
File about four months before the start month you actually want. You choose the month benefits start. Before FRA, SSA generally will not pay retroactive months — filing early is the reduction, permanently. At or after FRA you can usually take up to six months retroactive (SSA delayed-retirement / applying notes). Do not file “to get the paperwork done” at 62 if the start month you want is 67. Create the my Social Security account, confirm direct deposit, and screenshot both PIAs into the household folder next to the beneficiary forms. Retirement accounts skip the will — walk the beneficiary forms the same afternoon so the survivor step-up is not fighting a stale ex-spouse on a 401(k).
One-household worksheet, then pick two start months. High PIA, low PIA, FRA for each, gap cash for a 67→70 delay, other income (pension / Roth / taxable / part-time), earnings-test exposure if anyone is under FRA, Medicare already on the 65 calendar, combined-income band. Default if the gap is funded and the high earner has average-or-better longevity: high delays toward 70, low claims at FRA or when cash is tight. Default if Social Security is the rent and the sleeve is a card: claim what keeps the lights on, and do not both file at 62 out of fairness. Unequal ages: the older high earner’s delay still protects the younger survivor. If you are single, this file is overkill — use the primer.
Hard-stop list: both claiming at 62 because “we earned it,” treating restricted application or file-and-suspend as still available, skipping Part B at 65 because SS is delayed, funding a 67→70 gap with a 22% card, claiming at 62 then working over the $24,480 earnings-test limit, shrinking a PIA with repealed WEP/GPO, using a 2025 statement as a 2026 check, assuming the lower earner can take spousal while the high earner has not filed, and picking a start month by break-even age without writing the survivor number. If the gap in step 4 does not exist, you wanted 62 or 67, not a 70 slogan. If it does exist and you still both file at 62, the survivor is the person you shorted.
One-page decision
Pull both statements. Name the high earner. Fund their delay toward 70 if the 36-month sleeve exists without a card; their delayed credit is what the survivor inherits. Lower earner claims when cash is needed, knowing excess spousal waits until the high earner files. Restricted application is closed. Earnings test until FRA. Medicare at 65 regardless. Combined-income thresholds are still $32k / $44k MFJ. Nobody is required to delay into a bounced rent check.