Can I work full time,36 hrs. Weekly and still collect my widow ‘s benefits? Will be 60 July ,2,2019

Hi,

I can't give you a yes or no answer because it would depend on how much you earn. I assume you work for wages, in which case you could potentially be paid widow's benefits starting at age 60 if you either earn a) less than $17,640 for the calendar year of 2019 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html), or b) no more than $1470 in any month from July through December (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/rule.html). If your gross monthly wages will be more than $1470 you may still be able to draw some of your benefits, but you'd lose $1 of benefits for each $2 that you earn in excess of $17,640 in 2019 (i.e. January through December).

Your best strategy for claiming benefits is likely 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 on your own record 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). However, if your spouse received reduced retirement benefits prior to his death then it would probably be better to file on his account at some point prior to your 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 software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could sort all of this out for you and help you determine your optimal filing strategy.

Best, Jerry