Hi, I’m a 59 year old widow who’s husband filed for social security disability at 62 due to cancer and was approved . He passed away Ali I’ll ever a year after diagnosis. I was told that I can apply at 60 to start collecting his social security ? I know it will only be a certain percentage if so and will it be the disability amount ? I am only working a couple of days a week and my my benefit at retirement age is nothing close to his. Can I still work and collect his benefit?
Hi,
I'm sorry for your loss.
If you start drawing widow's benefits at age 60 the amount you'll due is equal to 71.5% of your husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA), or their full Social Security disability (SSDI) benefit rate. If you instead waited until FRA to start drawing your widow's benefits, and as long as your husband didn't receive reduced Social Security retirement benefits prior to his death, your widow's rate would equal 100% of your husband's PIA.
You can be paid all of your benefits as long as you don't earn more in a year than the Social Security test exempt amount. The exempt amount for people who are under FRA in 2020 is $18,240. If you earn more than the exempt amount, Social Security would need to withhold $1 of your benefits for each $2 that your earnings exceed the exempt amount. Assuming that you start drawing at age 60 and none of your benefits are withheld due to your earnings, the 28.5% reduction applied to your benefit rate for filing at age 60 will be permanent.
If your own benefit rate based on your own earnings would always be lower than your widow's rate, you may want to at least consider a different filing strategy. It may be a better long-term strategy to claim your own benefits at age 62 and then file for unreduced widow's benefits at FRA. You should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze your options in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.
Best, Jerry
