I was married to my ex-husband for 28 years before divorcing. I remarried and so did he. He passed away about 8 years later and received SSD and a Veterans disability at the time of his death. Would I be able to draw his higher amount of SS since we both remarried? How can I find out how much that amount would be? I am 63 now and having a lot of health problems and would love to go ahead and retire and enjoy what time I have left.

Hi,

You could potentially be eligible for surviving divorced spousal benefits if either a) you aren't currently married, or b) your current marriage took place either after you turned age 60 or after you became eligible for disabled surviving divorced spousal benefits. If you meet either of those conditions you would probably need to contact Social Security to determine your potential benefit rate, but you could use our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) if you have access to a list of your ex's past yearly earnings.

If you're currently drawing Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits and you could qualify for survivor benefits on your ex's record then it would likely be advantageous to file for those benefits as soon as possible. Your survivor rate would be reduced since you'd be starting to draw before your full retirement age (FRA), but as long as you're already drawing SSDI when you file for reduced survivor benefits any reduction for age goes away when you reach FRA.

Best, Jerry