I have been receiving disability for 3 years. My husband died suddenly last year. I began to get two separate checks. Disability and widows benefit. Is this correct or was this an error ?! In December I will be 65. Will this change at that time.?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like what you're receiving is probably correct. If a person is already receiving Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits and later becomes entitled to a higher widow's or disabled widow's rate, they continue to be paid their SSDI benefits plus a partial widow's benefit. SSDI benefits are not reduced for age, but the partial widow's benefit would be reduced for age if the widow is not yet full retirement age (FRA) when they become entitled to the widow's benefit.

For example, say Amy is drawing a monthly SSDI benefit of $1000. Amy is age 64 when her husband dies, and her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA) is $2000. Amy's unreduced partial widow's benefit rate would then be calculated by subtracting her SSDI rate of $1000 from her husband's PIA of $2000, which in Amy's case is $1000. However, since Amy is only age 64 when she starts drawing her widow's benefit her rate is reduced to $905. That partial widow's benefit would then be paid in addition to Amy's SSDI benefit to give her a combined rate of $1905.

The likely reason that your two benefits are not combined into one payment is because they are technically being paid from 2 different Social Security trust funds. SSDI benefits are paid from Social Security's disability trust fund whereas widow's benefits are paid from the retirement & survivor benefit trust fund. Once you reach your full retirement age of 66 your SSDI benefits will convert to regular Social Security retirement benefits, and at that time your benefits will be combined into a single payment since both of your benefits will then be paid out of the retirement and survivor benefit trust fund. Turning age 65 won't cause any changes, though.

Furthermore, if you were already drawing SSDI benefits when you became eligible for widow's benefits, then any reduction for age applied to your widow's benefit should be removed once you reach FRA. Therefore, it sounds like you'll probably see at least a modest increase in your widow's rate at that time, but not at age 65. Just to clarify, though, the provision that mandates removal of the reduction for age applied to widow's benefits once the widow reaches FRA only applies to widow's who were drawing SSDI at the time they became entitled to widow's benefits. If a widow is not receiving SSDI benefits and they start drawing widow's benefits prior to FRA, the resulting reduction for age applied to their benefit rate is permanent.

Best, Jerry