Husband died at 66 was collecting as disability 958 at death his check now would be whatever his retirement would top out at 2 years after death I was 54yrs at death at 56 I went to collect survivor ck 87 dollars a month now through cloak 91 is amount I receive know they deduct because I AM NOT FRA my homework tells me minimum about should be 71.5% hoping to supplement my income first wife getting 75% iam intiteled to 100% but not until I reach my FRA NO PMI has somthing to do with it believe am not getting amount am entitled to can help me to figure out?? I am on SSDI at 863 month at 58 yrs old if I drop my ck pick up his only about thirty dollar difference not really worth it please help need firm answer Thank you

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

You wouldn't want to 'drop' your own Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits even if that were allowed. If you only qualified for disabled widow's benefits (DWB) and not SSDI, your entire payment amount would be reduced by 28.5%. In other words, you'd get less per month if you weren't drawing SSDI benefits.

SSDI benefits are not reduced for age. If you're drawing SSDI and you become eligible for DWB, only the DWB benefits are reduced by 28.5%. For example, say Jane is receiving an SSDI benefit of $1000 per month. Jane's husband dies and since Jane is between ages 50 & 60 she qualifies for DWB. Jane's husband's full benefit rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA), was $2000, so Jane's DWB benefit would be calculated by subtracting her SSDI amount from her husband's PIA and then reducing the difference by 28.5%. In Jane's case this results in a DWB rate of $715 (i.e. ($2000 - $1000) x .715), which is then paid in addition to Jane's own SSDI benefit to give her total monthly benefits of $1715.

In the above example, if Jane wasn't getting SSDI her entire DWB payment of $2000 would be reduced by 28.5%, resulting in a monthly rate of $1430. Furthermore, there is a little known Social Security regulation that results in the removal of the 28.5% DWB reduction at the widow's full retirement age (FRA), but only if the widow was drawing SSDI at the time he or she first qualified for DWB.

Suffice to say that if you're drawing SSDI and if you're eligible for additional DWB benefits from your husband's record, you'd want to claim the DWB benefits as soon as possible. Any percentage reduction applied to your DWB benefit will be removed when you reach FRA, so there's no downside to claiming the DWB benefits now. Furthermore, the fact that your husband's ex-wife is receiving benefits from his record will not adversely affect the benefits you receive from your husband's record either now or in the future. Benefits paid to a divorced spouse don't count toward the family maximum benefit amount.

Best, Jerry