I am 58 years old and live in South Carolina I am on disability I am almost deaf my husband passed away December 8th of which he was 62 years old I just called Social Security and they are telling me that I am going to only be able to get 70% of his social security because I am not 66 that really is going to be very bad for me because I am only getting $860 a month which includes Medicaid which I am afraid to lose please help me in this situation thank you
Hi,
I'm sorry for your loss.
What you were told may be close to accurate depending on whether you are receiving Social Security disability (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). If you are receiving SSI, then you'll likely be required to file for disabled widow's benefits which would be paid at a rate of 71.5% of your husband's full retirement age rate (PIA). And if your disabled widow's benefit amount is higher than your SSI rate, your SSI will stop. Otherwise your SSI will be offset essentially dollar for dollar by the amount of your disabled widow's benefit.
On the other hand if you are receiving SSDI, that benefit will continue to be paid. And if that's the case it would likely be advantageous to file for disabled widow's benefits now assuming that your husband's PIA is higher than your SSDI benefit amount. In that event your disabled widow's benefit rate would be calculated at 71.5% of the difference between your SSDI benefit amount (PIA) and your husband's PIA. That amount would then be paid in addition to your SSDI. The reason that would likely be advantageous is that even though the disabled widow's benefit would initially be reduced by 28.5%, that reduction would be removed when you reach full retirement age (FRA). That would raise your combined benefit rate at FRA up to your husband's full PIA assuming that he wasn't receiving reduced retirement benefits prior to his death.
I'm not an expert on Medicaid, so I don't know how any of this would affect your Medicaid eligibility. You'll probably need to check with the agency handling that program to find out.
Best, Jerry
