I am going to be 67 in July and planning to collect my husband social security benefit in August. My husband pass away in 2018 and we were married for 33 years. They gave me appointment in May to come to see them in person. I asked the roughly estimate how much I would entitle to receive each month. They said, my husband would get $3100/m but I will only get $ 2310/m. I didn't ask that person why because she properly not the right person to ask. I would like to do some research before meeting with the agent in May and want to know why I will not get full benefit of my husband. What are they deducting? Currently, I pay Medicare Bills $320/m but it should go down as my income is going down every year. But still.....they take out $700 from $3,100. that is a lot of money.

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. You should get what is essentially your husband's full benefit amount, but if your husband received reduced retirement benefits prior to his death then your widow's rate would be limited to the higher of your husband's reduced benefit rate or 82.5% of his primary insurance amount (PIA).

The amount of your widow's benefit would depend on your husband's PIA, how old your husband was when he died, and whether or not your husband collected reduced retirement benefits prior to his death. Without knowing all of those facts, I can't tell you whether or not the benefit estimate that Social Security told you is correct. But, if you have that information you could use our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to calculate the widow's rate to which you're entitled.

Also, if you're already receiving your own benefits, then you could only be paid the higher of your own benefit rate or your widow's rate. If you're already collecting your own benefits and if your widow's rate is higher, then Social Security would pay you your own rate plus a partial widow's amount that should add up to the full higher widow's rate.

The most important thing that I can tell you, though, is that if you were born in 1955 then your full retirement age (FRA) for widow's benefits was the month you reached age 66. You can only claim benefits up to 6 months retroactively from the month you apply, so be sure to claim the full 6 months of retroactive benefits when you apply.

Best, Jerry