I am unmarried at 61 years old and my husband of 20+ years passed away 6 years ago. I am currently working part time at very low wage and having trouble making ends meet. I have decided to look into getting my survivor benefits. My husband was receiving social security disability when he died. My question is, which would be more beneficial to me to take the survivor benefits now or wait until I am 62 to get my own social security? My wages were never very high. My husband made much more money than I did. If I take my survivor benefits now (and continue to work part time), how much will taking the survivor benefits now effect my retirement benefits at age 66 1/2 when I retire? Thank you for your help!

Hi,

Starting survivor benefits now would have no effect on the rate of your own retirement benefits if you start them later. However, if you file on your own record after previously having filed for survivor benefits, you will only receive the higher of the 2 benefits. So, unless your own benefit rate would be higher at some point than the survivor rate you would already be getting, there would be no point in filing on your own record.

Your best strategy is almost certainly one of the following 2 options:
1) File for retirement benefits on your own record at age 62, then file for unreduced survivor benefits at age 66; or,
2) File for reduced survivor benefits now, then switch to your own record at age 70.

Basically, you will likely want to start the lower benefit first, and save the higher benefit rate for last. The Social Security earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking2.html) could limit the benefits you can draw prior to age 66, but if you aren't earning very much, that shouldn't alter your strategy.

Under no circumstances should you wait past age 66, which is your full retirement age for widow's benefits, to apply for survivor benefits. You don't earn delayed retirement credits on survivor benefits, so they are no higher at age 70 than at full retirement age. However, your own retirement benefit rate would continue to grow by a total of 32% if you wait until age 70 to start. That's true even if you are drawing survivor benefits in the meantime.

You may wish to run the maximization software available on this website. It can help you determine which benefit to start first, and when you should start each type of benefit.

Best, Jerry