I applied for widows benefits (divorced) at age 60. My ex-husband of 18 yrs died 5 yrs ago at age 58, never collected benefits. I was told I would receive $1530. a month. However, I received 5 months back payment (SSA is back-logged, I was told) for $6826. That comes out to $1374 a month. Why would I receive the reduced rate? That's $156. less than I was told. I just received a letter from SSA stating my benefits will be $1374. Should I question this, or pursue it with them, or just take the reduced payment? Thank you.

Hi,

I have no way of knowing if the amount of your benefit is correct. It's more likely that the amount you were initially quoted by the Social Security representative was incorrect and the amount on your award letter is correct than the other way around. However, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that you're being paid the wrong amount.

If your first month of entitlement to survivor benefits is the month that you reached age 60, then your correct benefit rate would be 71.5% of your ex-spouse's primary insurance amount (PIA). You could file an appeal request (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf) questioning your rate, but you may first want to contact Social Security to ask them to tell you the amount of your ex-spouse's PIA. You could then do the math to see if what you're being paid is 71.5% of his PIA.

Best, Jerry