My wife died of pancreatic cancer in 2012. Can I file for benefits now? Is there a time limit?

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. You don't mention your age nor whether or not you're drawing your own benefits, so I can't give you a complete answer. You may be able to qualify for widower benefits if you're at least age 60 or you're at least age 50 and disabled. You'd also need to be unmarried, or if you've remarried you'd need to have gotten remarried after reaching age 60, or after age 50 and after the date you qualify for disabled widower benefits. And, if you're already collecting your own benefits then you could only qualify for additional widower benefits if your potential widower rate is higher than your own benefit rate.

There's no limit on when you can apply for widower benefits, but you can't be paid benefits retroactively for more than 6 months prior to the date that you apply for them.

Best, Jerry