Can the spouse of a deceased Railroad worker draw both her Social Security payments and the RRB Tier 1 benefits ?

Hi,

No, not in full. If a widow(er) draws Social Security (SS) benefits, then his or her Tier 1 Railroad (RR) survivor benefit would be reduced dollar for dollar by the amount of their Social Security benefit. In other words, they could only be paid the higher of their SS rate or their Tier 1 RR rate, not both. However, SS doesn't affect Tier 2 RR benefits, so the widow(er) could also be paid any Tier 2 RR benefits to which they are entitled.

Best, Jerry