My friend who is 63 years old divorced 20 years but had been married to this man for 18. He passed away 4 years ago. She works fulltime. Is she entitled to benefits from her ex husband's social security? She wants to continue to work. Her ss will be better then his at retirement

Hi,

Assuming that your friend is unmarried, or if she is married and married after she reached age 60, it sounds like she could potentially qualify for reduced surviving divorced spousal benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.04/handbook-0403.html). However, whether or not she could actually be paid any benefits depends on the amount that she's earning and the amount of her survivor benefit. Until the year your friend reaches full retirement age (FRA), Social Security would need to withhold $1 of her benefits for each $2 that she earns in excess of the annual earnings test exempt amount (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/rtea.html). That could mean that all of your friend's benefits would need to be withheld if she's earning too much.

If your friend's own benefit rate is higher than her potential survivor rate her best filing strategy would likely be to file for survivor benefits as soon as her earnings would permit at least some benefits to be paid and then switch to her own benefits at age 70. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could sort all of this out for your friend and help her determine her optimal filing strategy.

Best, Jerry