60 year old disabled widow. Deceased spouse was fully insured. SSA has approved my disability. (Claim has been going on for 2.5 years). They sent me my late spouses reduced (28.5 from my late spouses retirement monthly benefit - immediately following his death. I assumed I was waiting to hear about disability. 1.5 years later, I found my claim in my local office where the supervisor told me I was approved for disability but processing doesn’t know how to code it ???
-I NEVER RECEIVED AN OFFICIAL LETTER OF DISABILITY. MY RESEARCH IN THE SSA SITE STATES THAT DISABLED WIDOW BENEFITS ARE CALCULATED IN SUCH A WAY THAT BEING PAID DISABILITY WOULD PAY MORE MONTHLY THAN RETIREMENT . I HAVE CALLED SSA SEVERAL TIMES. THEY WILL NOT TELL ME “WHY” - why I HAVE TO ACCEPT REDUCED RETIREMENT VS REDUCED DISABILITY. I have called SSA SEVERAL times asking for an award letter— I get: dependent letters, 3 income verification letters, widow letter, and 2 survivor letters. None of these & nothing I have states I am receiving disability. I need this for tax purposes and another reason but finding it impossible to get. It is also impossible to get any information about why I am receiving “reduced retirement” and NOT “reduced disability”. Thank you for taking the time to read this Larry. I really appreciate what you do.

Hi. Here is what I can tell you. Social Security retirement benefits are paid based on your own earnings history, and retirement benefits are reduced for age if you start drawing them prior to your full retirement age (FRA). The earliest that you can qualify for reduced retirement benefits is at age 62, so you couldn't be drawing reduced retirement benefits if you're only age 60.

Disabled widow's benefits can be paid as early as age 50, but the maximum benefit rate payable to a disabled widow is 71.5% of their deceased spouse's primary insurance amount (PIA). In other words, disabled widow's benefits are reduced by 28.5% from the unreduced amount that a widow could potentially receive if she started drawing regular widow's benefits at FRA or later (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0300615310). I have no way of knowing for sure what type of benefit(s) you're collecting, but if it's disabled widow's benefits then your benefit rate should be equal to 71.5% of your husband's PIA.

There's also Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits that you can potentially qualify for at any age prior to FRA, and those benefits are not reduced for age. SSDI benefits are, however, based on a person's own earnings history, not their spouse's earnings history as is the case with widow's and disabled widow's benefits. I don't know if you could qualify for SSDI benefits based on your earnings history, but the requirements are outlined on the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/credits.html#h3.

Best, Jerry