My late husband has 7 children all of which gets survivors benefits. My kids are his youngest two and 4 of them are set to graduate high school in the next couple years. So my question is will my kids increase when the others graduate or will it remain the same into they graduate.

Hi. Yes, when that many children are collecting benefits on the same record, their benefit rate is limited by the family maximum benefit (FMB) amount. In such cases, when one or more child stops collecting benefits, the share of the FMB that was being paid to those children can be redistributed to the remaining eligible children.

For example, let's say that 7 children are collecting benefits on a deceased person's account. The deceased person's primary insurance amount (PIA) is $1000, and the FMB is $1680. Each surviving child could potentially be paid up to 75% of the deceased parent's PIA, but since more than 2 children are eligible in this case the children can't be paid their full benefit rates due to the FMB. Therefore, the 7 children would receive equal shares of the FMB, or $240 (i.e. $1680/7). But, if one of the children becomes too old to collect benefits, the FMB would be split 6 ways instead of 7. That would raise the monthly benefit rate of the 6 remaining children to $280 (i.e. $1680/6).

Best, Jerry