Let's start with the part that makes people sit up.
Yes. You can collect Social Security based on an ex-spouse's earnings record.
It does not reduce their benefit by a single dollar. It does not reduce their new spouse's benefit either. They are not notified. They cannot object, block it, or find out unless you tell them.
Read that again if you just went through a bitter divorce, because it is the rare piece of financial news that is purely good.
The Social Security Administration does not care whether the marriage ended well. It cares about one number: ten years.
If you were married at least ten years, you may be sitting on a benefit you have never counted, from a person whose current phone number you do not have.
And plenty of people never claim it. Not because they are not eligible, but because nobody ever told them the option existed. Divorce attorneys handle the house and the 401(k). Social Security is not their department, so it goes unmentioned.
Here is the whole thing. Who qualifies, how much it pays, when to claim, and the mistakes that quietly cost people thousands.