Social Security Benefits After Divorce in Hawaii

You May Be Entitled to Benefits on Your Ex-Spouse's Record

If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be eligible to collect Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouse's earnings record. This is a federal program — the rules are the same in Hawaii as everywhere else — but many recently divorced people in Hawaii don't know about it, especially those who were out of the workforce or worked part-time during a long marriage.

Claiming benefits on your ex-spouse's record does not reduce their benefit or affect their current spouse's benefits in any way. The Social Security Administration treats divorced-spouse benefits as a separate entitlement.

Eligibility Requirements

You can claim divorced-spouse benefits if all of the following are true:

• Your marriage lasted at least 10 years (measured from the date of marriage to the date the divorce was finalized)
• You are at least 62 years old
• You are currently unmarried (if you remarried and that subsequent marriage also ended in divorce or death, you may regain eligibility)
• Your ex-spouse is entitled to Social Security retirement or disability benefits (they don't need to have filed — if they're eligible but haven't claimed, you can still file after being divorced for at least two years)

How Much You Can Receive

Divorced-spouse retirement benefits: You can receive up to 50% of your ex-spouse's full retirement benefit amount (their benefit at full retirement age, regardless of when they actually claimed). If you also have your own Social Security benefit based on your own work history, SSA pays you the higher of the two amounts — not both.

Divorced-spouse survivor benefits: If your ex-spouse has died, you may be eligible for survivor benefits worth up to 100% of their benefit amount. The rules are more generous for survivors:

• You can claim as early as age 60 (or age 50 if disabled)
• Remarriage after age 60 does not disqualify you
• You can switch between your own retirement benefit and the survivor benefit at different ages to maximize your lifetime income

The GPO and WEP Repeal: What It Means for Hawaii Government Workers

This is particularly relevant for people in Hawaii who receive a pension from the state Employees' Retirement System (ERS) — teachers, police officers, state administrators, county workers.

Before January 2025, two provisions reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for people who also received a government pension:

• The Government Pension Offset (GPO) reduced divorced-spouse and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the government pension amount — often zeroing them out entirely
• The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reduced your own Social Security retirement benefit if you also received a government pension from work not covered by Social Security

Both provisions were repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82), signed into law on January 5, 2025. The repeal is effective for benefits payable from January 2024 onward. SSA processed retroactive adjustments and back payments starting in February 2025.

What this means for you:

• If your Social Security benefits were previously reduced under GPO or WEP, SSA has already adjusted your payments upward and sent retroactive payments back to January 2024
• If you never applied for divorced-spouse or survivor benefits because the GPO would have zeroed them out, you need to file a new claim with SSA. The adjustment is not automatic for non-filers — you must apply
• If your ex-spouse was a state or county employee and you've been assuming you couldn't collect on their record because of the offsets, check again — the landscape has changed

Note: Hawaii's ERS plan-level pension provisions are unaffected by this repeal. The repeal only applies to the federal Social Security offsets — any separate offset built into the ERS pension formula itself (for coordinated-plan members) is a state plan provision and still applies.

How to Apply

Online: Create or log in to your my Social Security account at ssa.gov. You can start a benefits application online.

In person: Visit your nearest SSA office:

• Honolulu: 300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 1-114
• Hilo: 111 E. Puainako Street, Suite 710
• Wailuku (Maui): 2200 Main Street, Suite 125

What you'll need:

• Your Social Security number and your ex-spouse's Social Security number
• Your certified divorce decree (proving the marriage lasted 10+ years)
• Proof of your age (birth certificate or passport)

Timing Your Claim

You can claim divorced-spouse benefits as early as age 62, but your benefit amount is permanently reduced if you claim before your full retirement age (66-67 depending on your birth year). At full retirement age, you receive the full 50% of your ex-spouse's benefit. There's no advantage to waiting past full retirement age for divorced-spouse benefits — unlike your own retirement benefit, divorced-spouse benefits don't increase with delayed filing.

For survivor benefits, the calculation is different. Claiming at age 60 reduces the benefit, but waiting until your full retirement age gives you the full 100%. A financial advisor or your local SSA office can help you model the optimal claiming strategy based on your own work history and your ex-spouse's benefit amount.

The Hawaii After-Divorce Checklist includes a Social Security benefits review as part of the post-divorce financial planning section, with a timeline for when to contact SSA and what documentation to prepare.

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