My wife died 16years ago at the age of 53. I want to know if I can drawn her social security benefits. I'm currently 62 and still working.

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. You can't draw your wife's actual Social Security benefits, but it's certainly possible that you may qualify for widower benefits. In order to qualify for widower benefits you'd need to be unmarried, or if remarried your current marriage must have occurred after you reached age 60. Also, there is a Social Security earnings test that applies until a person reaches full retirement age (FRA), so even if you qualify for widower benefits you may not be able to collect the benefits now depending on how much you are earning.

If you apply for benefits in 2021, Social Security would need to withhold $1 of your benefits for each $2 that you earn in excess of $18,960. So, whether or not you could actually be paid any benefits depends on how much your benefit rate would be and how much you are earning.

It sounds like your best strategy for claiming benefits would likely be one of the following:
1) File for reduced widower benefits now or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits on your own record now or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widower benefits at full retirement age (FRA).

Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could help sort all of this out for you so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry