Hi Larry, I was married for more than 10 years to my former husband and never remarried. He recently passed away. I am in my early 70s and have been drawing social security for some time. I am in the process of applying for divorced spousal survivor benefits as he made considerably more money than I did. The social security representative said I am not entitled to his full benefit because he had remarried and only his current wife is entitled to that. That information is counter to any information I can find on their website and other expert sources. Am I wrong? They refuse to tell me what his full is as well. What should I do?

Hi. What you were apparently told by the Social Security representative with whom you spoke is misleading, at best. The fact that your ex's widow is collecting benefits on your ex's account makes no difference in your eligibility for survivor benefits, nor your potential survivor benefit rate.

However, since you're collecting your own Social Security survivor benefits, you can't also be paid your ex's full amount. Instead, you'll continue to be paid your own benefits, and if your survivor rate is higher than your own benefit amount, you can be paid a partial survivor benefit equal to the difference in the two benefit rates. The result would then be a combined benefit that's equal to the full higher survivor rate.

Best, Jerry