What Are Social Security Benefits? Definition, Types, and History

Updated October 13, 2022

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What Are Social Security Benefits?

Social Security benefits are payments made to qualified retired adults and people with disabilities, and to their spouses, children, and survivors. Social Security—officially the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program in the U.S.—is a comprehensive federal benefits program designed to provide partial replacement income for retired adults and their spouses, those whose spouse or qualifying ex-spouse has died, and people with disabilities. Under specified conditions, it also supports the children of beneficiaries.

Key Takeaways

Social Security benefits provide partial replacement income for qualified retired adults and individuals with disabillities, as well as for their spouses, children, and survivors.
An individual must pay into the Social Security program during their working years and accrue 40 credits in order to qualify for benefits.
The benefit amount someone receives is based on their earnings history, the year they were born, and the age when they start to claim Social Security.
Spouses who don't work or haven't amassed the requisite number of credits can receive benefits based on their spouse's work record.
Benefits may be taxed depending on one's income and tax filing status.

How Social Security Benefits Work

President Franklin Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act into law in 1935. The current law, after a number of amendments, encompasses several social insurance and social welfare programs, including the issuance of Social Security benefits. Benefits are determined by a specific set of criteria issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Payroll taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or the Self Employed Contributions Act (SECA) (for self-employed individuals) fund Social Security and all of its benefits.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects tax deposits and formally entrusts them to the Social Security Trust Fund, which is actually made up of two separate funds: the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

How Do You Qualify for Social Security Benefits?

You qualify for Social Security old age (or retirement) benefits by paying into the program during your working years. Full insurance is based on accumulating 40 quarters or "credits" from covered wages, and a worker can earn up to four credits a year. One credit is awarded for every $1,640 in earnings for 2023 (and $1,510 in 2022), an amount that is adjusted annually to keep up with inflation.

A payroll tax cap sets the maximum amount of earned income that is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. The payroll tax cap in 2022 is $147,000 (and rises to $160,200 in 2023).

The SSA keeps track of your earnings throughout your career, indexes each year's total earnings, and uses the 35 highest-earning years to determine your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Next, your AIME is used to arrive at your primary insurance amount (PIA), the monthly amount you can begin to collect when you reach full retirement age.

For individuals born in 1938 or later, the full retirement age gradually increases from 65 until it hits 67 for those born after 1959. You can collect Social Security retirement benefits at age 62, but the amount of the benefit will be reduced to compensate for receiving it earlier and, presumably, for a longer period of time.

If you wait until you're 70 instead of 62 to collect benefits, you'll get an extra 8% a year, which means you'll collect 132% of your PIA for the rest of your life. Once you reach age 70 the increases stop.

In 2022, the maximum monthly Social Security payment for retired workers is $3,345, rising to $3,627 in 2023. The SSA’s retirement calculators can help you determine your full retirement age, the SSA’s estimate of your life expectancy for benefit calculations, rough estimates of your retirement benefits, actual projections of your retirement benefits based on your work record, and more. Retired adults with non-FICA or SECA-taxed wages will require additional help because rules for those individuals are more complex.

Types of Social Security Benefits

Spousal Benefits

Spouses who didn’t work or who didn’t earn enough credits to qualify for Social Security on their own can receive benefits starting at age 62 based on their spouse’s work record. Similar to claiming benefits on one's own record, a spouse's benefit will be reduced if they claim benefits before reaching full retirement age. The highest spousal benefit someone can receive is half the benefit their spouse is entitled to at their full retirement age.

Survivor Benefits

When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse is entitled to file for a survivor's benefit as early as age 60. The benefit will be reduced if they file prior to reaching their full retirement age. They are permitted to switch to their own benefit at any point they wish starting at age 62 and through age 70 if that benefit is higher than the survivor's benefit.

People who were married for 10 years or longer—and are divorced and have not remarried—are entitled to collect the spousal benefit and the spousal survivor benefit. The rules are complicated so review them carefully.

Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) are made annually to Social Security benefits to counteract the effects of inflation. There have been years with no increase due to negligible inflation rates, and years with large ones to compensate for rising prices—such as the 8.7% COLA for 2023.

Special Considerations

If an individual taxpayer's income exceeds $25,000, or a married couple filing jointly has income that's more than $32,000, they will be required to pay taxes on their Social Security benefits.

The portion of benefits that is subject to taxation depends upon income level, but no one pays taxes on more than 85% of their Social Security benefits, regardless of income. Benefits received due to disability are, in most cases, tax-free. If your child receives dependent or survivor benefits, this money does not count towards your taxable income.

What Happens to Unused Social Security Benefits?

Unused Social Security benefits are kept in the Social Security trust funds and used to pay individuals receiving payments right now. Money contributed to Social Security cannot be refunded and contributions are not returned if an eligible worker dies before collecting benefits.

Which States Tax Social Security Benefits?

There are 12 states that currently tax Social Security benefits—Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

What Percentage of Social Security Benefits Does a Widow Receive?

Widows can receive up to 100% of the deceased spouse’s primary insurance amount (PIA). Widows of a divorced spouse (married for at least 10 years) are also eligible to collect up to 100% of the former spouse’s PIA—assuming they have not remarried.

When Does Social Security Benefits Recalculate?

Social Security benefits are evaluated each year. That is, the Social Security Administration reviews benefits each year for the previous year’s income. If the latest year is one of your highest-earning years, your benefit is recalculated to reflect the increased benefit due—which is retroactive to January of the year after you earned the money.

Which Types of Income Reduce Your Social Security Benefits?

If you're younger than full retirement age, certain types of income that contribute to your yearly earnings limit can reduce your benefit amount. Such income includes wages paid to you for working and net earnings from self-employment. Income that does not reduce benefits includes interest, annuities, capital gains, investment earnings, pensions, and other government benefits.