My husband passed away last year and i began recieving widows benifits, I chose to collected on my 1st husbands benefits as it was more money, I just turned 62 this month and i want know how to maximize my social security income, An I also allowde to recieve my Social security benefits ? I did worked for more than 30 years. If so how can i get both? I would alsolike to know if I qualify for Medicare now?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

You can't get both your own retirement benefits and your full widow's rate at the same time. If you file for your own retirement benefits, Social Security will reduce your widow's benefit by an amount equal to your retirement benefit rate. In other words, the only way you would get more is if your own rate is higher.

So, unless your retirement benefit rate is higher than your widow's rate at some point, there would likely be no advantage to ever filing on your own record. And if it is higher, it would likely be best to wait until age 70 to switch. Your own rate will continue to increase until you reach age 70, so you'll want to check with Social Security at that time to see if it would be advantageous to switch to your own record.

Unless you are disabled, you can't get Medicare coverage until you are age 65.

Best, Jerry