Not a question but an angry widow. Collected ss at age 66. Husband died 5 months later age 59. Funeral hame never notified so I never received anything. I was a total mess. Around Oct of 2021 I called ss asking if they could check to see if widows be edits would be larger. They said probably not because he was so young amd I made more money so why bother? Also asked about the clause I could pay back what I got and go on widows. Said I would take a large hit amd would cost a lot and wasn’t guaranteed so no money for awhile. Call a few times more and told other stories. Wanted to file after I read about it. Apparently the date had to be within one year of my collecting not the date of his death. I lost out. Please use this as an example of Uninformed employees causing widows to lose a lot of money. Thank you

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. It's true that to potentially be able to withdraw your application for Social Security retirement benefits you must do so within 12 months of the month you started collecting benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/withdrawal.html). You don't mention what month you became entitled to benefits, so I don't know what options you have, or may have had.

It's also true that when you're already collecting your own benefits then you can only qualify for additional widow's benefits if your widow's rate is higher than your own rate. I don't have any way of knowing how those rates compare in your case, but you could apply for widow's benefits in order to get a formal determination of your eligibility. Also, even if you don't qualify for monthly widow's benefits, you may be eligible for a one time death benefit of $255 (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.04/handbook-0430.html). So, if you haven't yet applied for that benefit you'll probably want to do so. In order to be eligible for the $255 lump sum death benefit, you must apply for it within two years of your spouse's date of death.

Best, Jerry