For a friend...her husband died 5 years ago at age 60 never having collected his social security. She is a retired teacher receiving Texas retired teacher monthly check...did not pay into social security. Would she not be able to collect a widow's benefit from her late husband? She was told no. Please advise. Thank you.

Hi,

It sounds like your friend's potential widow's benefits would probably be reduced or even fully eliminated due to her teacher pension. Social Security has a Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision that can cause Social Security widow's benefits to be reduced by 2/3rds of the amount of a government pension received by the widow which is based on their own work that was exempt from Social Security taxes. For more information on GPO, refer to this Social Security publication (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

Best, Jerry