My husband passed away nine years ago. I am 53 and would like to retire within the next 3-4 years but I will only receive about half my current income after I retire. Can I apply to collect my deceased husbands social security benefits plus my own pension when I do retire

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Assuming that you're referring to receiving Social Security benefits on both your own record and your husband's record, the answer is no you couldn't receive both benefits at the same time. If you file for both your own Social Security retirement benefits and for widow's benefits, you could only receive the higher of those 2 benefit rates. Also, unless you're disabled you'd need to be at least age 60 to be eligible for widow's benefits and at least age 62 to potentially qualify for retirement benefits on your own record.

It sounds like your best option would probably be one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits at age 60 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits at age 62 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at your full retirement age (FRA).

Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher record when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our maximization software could sort all of this out for you and help you determine your optimal strategy.

Best, Jerry