{"id":663167,"date":"2026-05-25T00:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663167\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:18:12","slug":"heres-how-much-the-average-spousal-social-security-beneficiary-takes-home-after-paying-for-medicare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663167\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s How Much the Average Spousal Social Security Beneficiary Takes Home After Paying for Medicare"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re 65 or older and have been on Social Security for a while, you probably know your benefits aren’t all yours to keep. You could lose some to taxes, and you’ll have your Medicare Part B premiums withheld before your checks even reach you.<\/p>\n

This is true of spousal benefits as well as retirement benefits. And since spousal benefits are smaller on average, these beneficiaries have much less money to cover their other costs.<\/p>\n

\"Couple<\/p>\n

Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n

The average spousal Social Security benefit is $985.99 per month as of April 2026. While this is a record high, it’s still far less than the $2,081 average monthly retirement benefit. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Medicare Part B premium for most beneficiaries is $202.90 in 2026. If we subtract this from the average spousal benefit, that leaves about $783 to cover remaining costs.<\/p>\n

That money won’t go very far on its own, but fortunately, it’s likely not your only Social Security benefit. If you’re married and claiming a spousal benefit, your partner is also receiving a retirement benefit, which is likely to be larger.<\/p>\n

However, even with two Social Security benefit checks, you’ll likely still need other retirement income sources<\/a>, like personal savings or a job, to help you cover your living costs. You should also keep in mind that only your Medicare Part B premiums come directly out of your Social Security checks. You’ll still have to pay for deductibles and copays out of your own pocket, so remember to budget for those.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’re 65 or older and have been on Social Security for a while, you probably know your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-663167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}