If a husband whom is currently at FRA decides to wait until 70 to claim his own benefit and has a wife whom is 10 years younger (not at her FRA or age 60), dies before claiming (lets say 69, a year before 70) would the wife get the benefit amount of what the husband would had received at age 69 (assuming she waits until her FRA) or would he be a lower amount? I wasn't sure if the Delayed Retirement Credits are diminished. Thank you Larry for what you do for the investment planning community.

Hi,

My brother passed away this week.
He was 58 and collecting ssdi. He had brain cancer. Hi wife is 55. Although they own a house, she has nothing else. Her job pays $15 per hour and she is full time.
Can she continue to collect any amount of his ssdi?
Thank you
Bob

Hi Bob,

I'm sorry for your loss.

I am 59 years old I was married for 17 years divorced in 2000 my boyfriend is sick with with cancer and was thinking of getting married how long do I need to be married to get his ss and what is the percent thank u in advance

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your boyfriend's illness.

Can my mother collect a widows benefit?
Father passed away 3/19 Ava 74 and was retired. He had been collecting ss for approximately 10 yrs (+/-$1700/mo). Mom is 75 and still working full time (+/-$124000). Can she collect widows benefits?
Thank you for your response. She lives in NY state.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

i will turn 60 in january of 2022 i became a widow in 2008 i was told i couldn't get my husband social security because i work, and i made more then 13,000.00 a year so i wasn't entitled. when i turn 60 years old will i be able to get his social security benefits and still work i heard i should get 75% of his monthly amount which comes out to be around 800.00 a month. my yearly income now is about 32,000.00 year. thank you Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

I'm sorry for your loss.

MY husband died in December 2009. He was 49. He had collected Social Security disability for a few years when he died. I am 62, will be 63 in January and work full time. I need to know if I can collect spousal benefits and continue to work or if I earn too much to benefit. My current salary is around 70,000 annually at present

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

i am a widow can i file for survivor benefits at age 62?
i am still working and make about 49,000 a year.
thanks

Hi,

My husband died 2000. I started receiving my Social Security for disability on 2001. But never got a penny from my husband's social security. Now I am 68 and still questioning why SSA kept my husband check. One lady told me they keep it because mine was higher. We were married 17 years and not a penny I received from his. It's not fair.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Hello,
2009 my husband died. At that time, he had more credits with SSA then I had with SSA. 2019, I called SSA and asked them if I could start my widow benefits when I turned 60 on 11/01/2020 and still keep my job.

They said no to the job and no to obtaining widow benefits when I turned 60 because I now had more credits than my husband. They also said that I would never be able to draw on his SS benefits.

I'm face with retiring at 62 since I have medical issues but not enough to obtain SSI benefits.

Can SSA do this?

Thanks,
-Rhonda

Dear Larry,

First of all thank you for the prompt response from your team to my question in July. Due to your response, SSA changed the wording on the letter that they sent me regarding widow's benefits. The first letter said that I was only due money for widow's benefits dating back to May 2019. After I informed them about the information I received from you, they changed the letter to state that I was due money dating back to January 2019!