Dear Liz: You say that people can receive divorced survivor benefits while remarried but only if they married at 60 or later. I am 75 and getting married soon. I hoped to continue to receive my deceased ex-husband’s benefits. We were married for 30 years. When I finally connected with an actual live person in the Social Security office, I was told that is incorrect and I will lose his benefits.
Answer: Social Security rules for spousal and survivor benefits are complicated. Divorce adds another layer of complexity. It’s understandable that many people get confused, but you’d hope the Social Security reps could get this right.
Divorced spousal benefits — the benefits someone gets from an ex’s work record while the ex is still alive — are what end when someone remarries. If your ex is dead and you receive divorced survivor benefits, you can continue receiving those if you remarry at 60 or later.
I was receiving divorced spousal support until I retired at age 75. This was stopped because they said I made too much retirement money. Am I able to reinstate it? I make less in retirement than I did that first year of retirement. I get a different answer from each employee each time I call
Hi, Harriet. Are you receiving a government pension? That could wipe out any Social Security benefit you received from someone else’s work record, such as divorced spousal benefits. It’s called the government pension offset and you can read more here: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf