Ask Liz Weston

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Social Security

Q&A: Survivor Social Security benefit

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Dear Liz: When you discuss a survivor receiving 50% of their spouse’s Social Security benefit, are you basing the 50% on gross or net income?

Answer: The survivor benefit is up to 100% of what the deceased spouse or ex-spouse was receiving from Social Security, before taxes. If the spouse or ex starts Social Security early, that reduces the potential survivor benefit. If the spouse or ex delays Social Security beyond full retirement age, that can increase the benefit.

Spousal benefits, by contrast, are paid when the spouse or ex is still alive. Spousal benefits can be up to 50% of what the spouse or ex would receive at full retirement age.

Q&A: Checking survivor benefit eligibility

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Dear Liz: I was widowed at 44, when my children were 10 and 12. I received Social Security benefits for myself and for them for a time. I then went back to work. I started taking Social Security at 65 even though I continued working until 70. I hear a lot about widows’ benefits and wonder whether I would be eligible. I need the funds.

Answer: Call Social Security at (800) 772-1213 and ask whether your survivor benefit, based on your husband’s work record, is greater than the benefit you’re receiving. If it is, you’ll get the larger of the two benefits, rather than both of them. If it’s not, you’ll continue to get your own benefit.

You first qualified for survivor benefits because you were caring for a deceased worker’s minor children. Your benefit probably ended when the younger child turned 16, although the children could continue receiving checks until they turned 18 or graduated from high school, whichever occurred later.

Otherwise, survivor benefits are typically available at age 60, although the amount available is reduced if you start benefits before your own full retirement age (which used to be 65 but is currently between 66 and 67). Also, benefits started before full retirement age are subject to the earnings test, which withholds $1 for every $2 earned over a certain amount ($21,240 in 2023).

When you applied for Social Security at 65, the agency may have compared the benefit you earned on your own record with the survivor benefit you were eligible for based on your late husband’s record, and given you the larger of the two. If not, ask them to make the comparison now and see if you’d be better off.

Q&A: Divorce survivors benefits and remarriage

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Dear Liz: I am a divorced man receiving Social Security survivors benefits based on the earnings record of my ex, who has died. I am 63. Can I get married and continue to receive benefits?

Answer: Yes. People receiving survivors benefits can remarry at age 60 or later without losing their benefits.

Survivors benefits are based on the earnings record of a spouse or ex-spouse who has died. That’s different from spousal benefits and divorced spousal benefits, which are based on the earnings record of someone who is still alive. People receiving divorced spousal benefits can’t remarry without losing those benefits.

Q&A: Social Security rules differ for divorced spouses and divorced survivors. We explain

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Dear Liz: My spouse’s parents were married for 11 years. They divorced at age 32 and my mother-in-law remarried at 42. My mother-in-law and her ex are now 82. Her husband is 93 and in poor health. When her husband dies, she does not get his pension. Her current Social Security benefit is $850 a month. Her husband receives $1,200 while my father-in-law’s benefit is $2,500 a month. She is convinced that when her current husband dies, she will be eligible for her ex-husband’s $2,500 benefit. I think that only happens when her ex dies, but she can get 50% while he is still alive. What is correct?

Answer: You’ve got it right.

People may be eligible for benefits from ex-spouses’ work records if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.

While the ex is alive, your mother-in-law could qualify for divorced spousal benefits of up to 50% of his benefit at full retirement age — but only if she is currently unmarried. If her ex dies, she might be eligible for divorced survivor benefits of up to 100% of the benefit he was receiving — but only if she is widowed or divorced. (People can receive divorced survivor benefits while married, but only if they married at 60 or later.)

She would receive benefits based on her ex’s work record only if the check is larger than her own.

The different rules for divorced spousal versus divorced survivor benefits can be complicated, so it’s not surprising that she’s confused. Let’s use the numbers you provided to make this somewhat clearer.

If she is widowed and her ex is still alive, she would get a divorced survivor benefit of $1,250, because it’s (slightly) larger than the $1,200 survivor benefit from her husband’s record. (Her own $850 benefit would essentially go away, so her household income would drop pretty dramatically from $2,050 plus the pension to $1,250.)

If her ex should subsequently die, she would be eligible for divorced survivor benefits of $2,500 (or whatever the ex was receiving at the time of his death).

There are some caveats here.

Divorced spousal benefits are based on the ex’s “primary insurance amount,” or what he would receive at his full retirement age. For someone born in 1940, that was 65 years and six months. Your mother-in-law would not be eligible for any delayed retirement credits her ex may have earned by putting off his application until after his full retirement age.

On the other hand, she wouldn’t be penalized if he started his benefit before full retirement age. The bottom line is that her divorced spousal benefit could be somewhat more or less than 50% of what he is currently receiving, depending on when he applied.

Survivor and divorced survivor benefits, on the other hand, are based on what someone was actually getting when they died. An early start can stunt those benefits whereas a later start can increase them.

That’s true of regular survivor benefits as well, and why it is so important for the higher earner in a married couple to delay filing as long as possible. The larger benefit can really help when the first spouse dies and one of the couple’s two checks ends.

Your mother-in-law’s financial prospects were made even worse by the decision to get a “single life” payout from the pension rather than a “joint and survivor” option. The joint and survivor option would have meant accepting a smaller benefit, but it would have lasted for your mother-in-law’s lifetime rather than ending at her husband’s death.

A married worker can’t choose the single life option without spousal consent, and spouses would be smart to consult a fee-only financial planner before they agree to give up a lifetime stream of income.

Q&A: When to take survivor benefits

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Dear Liz: My wife started collecting Social Security at her full retirement age six years ago. I’m waiting to file to get my maximum Social Security payout at 70 in 2025. If I were to file today, my current benefit would be significantly higher than hers, and even more so if I wait. If I predecease her without filing before reaching my maximum benefit at 70, what are her options for survivor benefits? Would her new benefit amount be based on my date of death or my full retirement age, or can she delay filing until I would have turned 70 in 2025?

Answer: Your wife would receive a survivor benefit equal to whatever you had earned as of your date of death, including any delayed retirement credits. She wouldn’t increase her survivor benefit by delaying until 2025, if you die before then. On the other hand, she also wouldn’t face a reduction in the benefit for starting early, since she has already reached her own full retirement age.

You’re making the smart move by delaying because you’re maximizing both your own benefit and the sole Social Security check that one of you will receive after the other dies. But you don’t have to be married to benefit from delaying. New research by economists at Boston University and the Federal Reserve has found that virtually all American workers ages 45 to 62 should wait beyond age 65 to start Social Security and more than 90% should wait until age 70.

Q&A: Claiming divorced spousal benefits

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Dear Liz: My son is 59, and his ex-wife died approximately 12 years ago. She was a nurse and paid more into Social Security than he has. Is he entitled to her Social Security benefits as indicated in your article? How does he file and get more information? Must he wait until he is 62?

Answer: If their marriage lasted at least 10 years, he could begin divorced survivor benefits as early as age 60, or age 50 if he is disabled. (He can remarry at age 60 or later and still receive survivor benefits.)

Benefits are reduced if he applies before his full retirement age, which will be 67. Also, starting before full retirement age means the benefits are subject to the earnings test that withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 earned over a certain amount, which in 2023 will be $21,240.

If he earns too much to make starting early worthwhile, he could apply for divorced survivor benefits at age 67, when the earnings test goes away. His own retirement benefit could continue to grow until age 70, and he could switch at that point if his own benefit is larger.

But he’d be smart to consult a financial planner or use a Social Security strategy site, such as Maximize My Social Security or Social Security Solutions, to craft the best approach.

He can call Social Security’s toll free number at (800) 772-1213 for more information.