Marriage Requirements in the United States

Marriage Requirements in the Social Security

Introduced into the Social Security program in 1939, spouse and survivor benefits have important implications for the retirement experience of women. At the end of 2005, 12.9 million women Social Security beneficiaries aged 62 or older (59 percent) received at least part of their benefit as wives or widows of entitled workers. [1].

A number of dynamic factors influence the number of women (and men) eligible for, and claiming, Social Security spouse or survivor benefits at retirement. Past and present marital status determines potential benefit eligibility (typically, one must be currently married, widowed, or have had a 10-year marriage to qualify), and the benefit amount is based on a person’s lifetime earnings record in relation to a current or former spouse. This article focuses on the marital history component of eligibility, while acknowledging that large-scale changes in women’s workforce attachment over the past half century, such as increases in labor market participation and earnings relative to men, have led to an increase in the share of women retirees receiving at least part of their benefit based on their own earnings record.

The connection between marital history and eligibility for spouse or widow benefits is of increasing interest among policymakers and retirement analysts (Favreault and Steuerle 2007; Harrington Meyer, Wolf, and Himes 2006). Although marital trends have begun to stabilize in the United States in recent years (for example, divorce rates appear to have leveled off), an extensive literature documents dramatic changes in the marital patterns of women over the past several decades. Notable changes include increases in divorce, decreases in marriage durations, and a rise in the number of women who delay or forgo marriage. [2] From a retirement perspective, shifting marital patterns are important as they may mean that the share of women with the option of claiming a spouse or widow benefit at retirement may change as well. For example, recent trends show higher proportions of never-married women in the population (Tamborini 2007), which would reduce the share of women potentially eligible for spouse or widow benefits by the time they reach retirement age.

Since marital histories help establish whether spouse or widow benefits will be a retirement income option for women in old age, it is important to track marital trends, particularly as the leading edge of the baby-boom generation begins retiring. This article uses data from the 2001 Marital History Topical Module (wave 2) to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine the extent to which marital patterns are changing among different age groups of women. The SIPP Marital History Module is considered one of the best surveys to gauge recent marital patterns, especially since the National Center for Health Statistics and the Current Population Survey no longer collect comprehensive data on marriage and divorce. Thanks to an agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau, the Social Security Administration has access to a Restricted-Use File of the Marital History Module, which contains the year and month of marital transition events (marriage, divorce, widow). This information is important because it allows for the estimation of length of marriages, an important component of this article’s analysis. [3]

Relationship requirements

Legal spouse

A legal spouse must be validly married to the NH under the laws of the State of the NH’s domicile at the time the claimant files an application or during the life of the application; or
Have the same rights as a husband or wife to share in the distribution of the NH’s intestate personal property under the laws of the State of the NH’s domicile at the time of filing.
For instructions about same-sex marriage, see GN 00210.100.

Deemed spouse

A deemed spouse must have gone through a marriage ceremony with the NH in good faith resulting in a marriage which would have been valid except for a legal impediment.

Alternative requirements

In addition to meeting the relationship requirements above, a claimant must either:

• Meet a duration-of-marriage requirement. This is met if the claimant has been married to the NH (or has the same rights as his or her spouse as stated in RS 00202.001A.1., or has been married ceremonially as explained in RS 00202.001A.2.) for at least 1 continuous year immediately before the day on which the claimant’s application is filed. This requirement may be met on the basis of an application actually filed before the first anniversary of the marriage as long as the anniversary occurs prior to adjudication; or
• Be the natural mother or father of the worker’s biological son or daughter; i.e., this requirement is met if a live child was born to the NH and claimant although the child need not be alive (see GN 00306.010 for development); or
• Have been entitled or potentially entitled to certain auxiliary or survivor’s benefits under the RRA or SS Act in the month before the month of marriage to the NH. This requirement is met if, in that month, he or she had been entitled or potentially entitled to husband’s or wife’s (including deemed or divorced spouse’s), widow(er)’s (including deemed widow(er)’s or surviving divorced spouse’s), parent’s, or childhood disability benefits on the record of a fully insured individual under the provisions of the SS Act, or widow(er)’s, (including divorced widow(er)’s), parent’s, or child’s (age 18 or over) annuity under the provisions of the RRA.
  NOTE: A husband or wife is considered to have been “potentially entitled” if he or she met all requirements for entitlement other than the filing of an application (see RS 00202.080 through RS 00202.085 for development).

To Get Married Requirements, including the Age issue

As an example, the South Carolina Code of Laws, in Title 20 (Domestic Relations), the section 20-1-10 on persons who may contract matrimony, establishes the following:

“(A) All persons, except mentally incompetent persons and persons whose marriage is prohibited by this section, may lawfully contract matrimony.

(B) No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, stepmother, sister, grandfather’s wife, son’s wife, grandson’s wife, wife’s mother, wife’s grandmother, wife’s daughter, wife’s granddaughter, brother’s daughter, sister’s daughter, father’s sister, mother’s sister, or another man.

(C) No woman shall marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, stepfather, brother, grandmother’s husband, daughter’s husband, granddaughter’s husband, husband’s father, husband’s grandfather, husband’s son, husband’s grandson, brother’s son, sister’s son, father’s brother, mother’s brother, or another woman.”

Spouse Annuity Marriage Requirements in the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board

According to RB-30 (4-16), in order to qualify for a spouse annuity, you must be the legal spouse of the railroad employee and you must have been legally married to the railroad employee for at least one year immediately prior to filing your spouse annuity application. The one-year marriage requirement is waived if any of the following conditions exist:

• you are the natural parent of the railroad employee’s child;
• you were eligible for a widow(er)’s parent’s or disabled child’s annuity under the RRA in the month before your marriage to the employee; or,
• you had met the one-year marriage requirement for a previous spouse annuity on the employee’s earnings record before a divorce and you later remarried that employee.

The United States Marriage Requirements

General overview on the age isse to get married in the United States (marriage age requirements), and the age required to get married with or without parental consent in the United States. Explanations on what types of marriages are prohibited or annulled under the United States law (prohibited marriage laws), such as blood relatives; and additional information on common law marriages and designating bigamy as a felony. The issue os same-sex marriage in the United States is also addressed.

Resources

Notes

1.  Therein, 28 percent dually entitled (12 percent spouse benefit, 16 percent survivor), 11 percent spousal-only, and 19 percent survivor-only.
2. Divorce rates surged in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, and have since stabilized at a relatively high level. For useful discussion of recent marital trends within the United States, see Butrica and Iams 2000; Goldstein 1999; Goldstein and Kenney 2001; Kreider 2005; Harrington Meyer et al. 2006; Norton and Miller 1992; Ruggles 1997; Waite 1995.
3. Marital event dates are suppressed in the Public-Use File of the 2001 Marital History Module. The public file therefore does not contain information that would allow estimates of each respondent’s length of marriage(s). To ensure confidentiality, all users of restricted data must be authorized by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Further Reading

Blau, Francine D., Marianne Ferber, and Anne Winkler. 2006. The economics of women, men and work, 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2005. Highlights of women’s earnings in 2004. Report 987, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor,
Butrica, Barbara A., and Howard M. Iams. 2000. Divorced women at retirement: Projections of economic well-being in the near future. Social Security Bulletin 63(3): 3–12.
Butrica, Barbara A., Howard M. Iams, and Steven H. Sandell. 1999. Using data for couples to project the distributional effects of changes in Social Security policy. Social Security Bulletin 62(3): 20–27.
Clark, Sandra L., and Mai Weismantle. 2003. Employment status 2000. Census 2000 Brief, C2KBR-18. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Favreault, Melissa M., and C. Eugene Steuerle. 2007. Social Security spouse and survivor benefits for the modern family. The Retirement Project, Discussion Paper 07-01. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
Favreault, Melissa M., Frank J. Sammartino, and C. Eugene Steuerle, eds. 2002. Social Security and the family. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
Fullerton, Howard N. Jr. 1999. Labor force participation: 75 years of change, 1950–1998 and 1998–2025. Monthly Labor Review: 3–12.
Goldstein, Joshua R. 1999. The Leveling of divorce in the United States. Demography 36(3): 409–414.
Goldstein, Joshua, and Catherine Kenney. 2001. Marriage delayed or marriage forgone? New cohort forecasts of first marriage for U.S. women. American Sociological Review 66: 506–519.
Harrington Meyer, Madonna, Douglas A. Wolf, and Christine L. Himes. 2006. Declining eligibility for Social Security spouse and widow benefits in the United States? Research on Aging 28(2): 240–260.
Iams, Howard M., and Martynas A. Ycas. 1988. Women, marriage, and Social Security benefits. Social Security Bulletin 51(5): 3–9.
Kreider, Rose M., and Tavia Simmons. 2003. Marital status: 2000, Census 2000 Brief. Census Bureau Special Reports, C2KBR-30. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Kreider, Rose M. 2005. Number, timing, and duration of marriages and divorces: 2001. Current Population Reports.: Washington DC: U.S. Census Bureau (February).
Lillard, Lee A., and Linda J. Waite. 1989. Panel Versus Retrospective Data on Marital Histories: Lessons from the PSID. In Individuals and Families in Transition: Understanding Change through Longitudinal Data. Washington DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Martin, Patricia and David Weaver. 2005. Social Security: A program and policy history. Social Security Bulletin 66(1): 1–15.
Norton, Arthur J., and Louisa F. Miller. 1992. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the 1990s. Current Population Reports: Special Studies. Series P-23, No. 180. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Ruggles, Steven. 1997. The rise of divorce and separation in the United States, 1880–1990. Demography 34(4): 455–466.
Social Security Administration [SSA]. 2006. Income of the population 55 or older, 2004. SSA Publication No. 13–11871. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Social Security Administration. 2007. Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin, 2006. Washington, DC: SSA.
Social Security Administration. 2007b. Online Social Security Handbook.
Tamborini, Christopher R. 2007. The never-married in old age: Projections and concerns for the near future. Social Security Bulletin 67(2): 25–40.
Waite, Linda J. 1995. Does marriage matter? Demography 32(4): 483–507.
Weaver, David A. 1997. The economic well-being of Social Security beneficiaries, with an emphasis on divorced beneficiaries. Social Security Bulletin 60(4): 3–17.