Social Security benefits provide a much-needed financial safety net that facilitates a comfortable retirement. If your spouse passes away in a tragic accident, you may be eligible for their retirement benefits. You could receive more than your monthly individual benefits depending on the circumstances.
Conditions for Receiving Benefits for a Spouse
At the time of passing, you must have been married to the deceased for at least nine months to be eligible for spousal survivors’ benefits. This criterion does not apply if your spouse died in the line of duty or due to an accident.
Most survivors become eligible for spousal benefits at age 60. You may also apply beginning at age 50 if you became disabled within seven years of your spouse’s death. In addition, you are eligible at any age so long as any children you shared with the deceased are disabled or younger than 16.
If you delay until retirement age, you will be eligible to receive 100 percent of your deceased spouse’s benefits. If you file a claim between the ages of 60 and retirement, you will receive 71.5 and 99 percent of the benefits. The proportion will increase as the filing age increases.
You are eligible for 71.5 percent of the survivor benefits if you file as a spouse with a disability. You will qualify for 75% of the benefits if you are applying to care for a child under the age of 16 or who is disabled.
If you were already receiving Social Security benefits, you are only eligible for survivor benefits if the amount is more significant than what you were receiving. Remember that you will not receive any additional benefits due to the death of your spouse. Social Security provides the greater of the two benefits.
Surviving benefits never exceed those offered at full retirement age. However, from the time you attain retirement age until you turn 70, your account will continue to accrue 8% per year in delayed retirement credits.
An Illustration of How Surviving Spouse Benefits Work
Assume you are a woman in her 60s eligible for a full retirement benefit of $2,200 at age 66 and a current survivor benefit of $2,500. You qualify for $1,788, or 71.5 percent of the spouse benefits. You will effectively delay retirement until age 70 when you will be eligible for $2,904 monthly. With this method, your lifetime income increases dramatically.
Your FRA is determined by your birth year. If you were born between 1955 and 1959, your FRA is 66 years and 2 to 10 months; if you were born after 1960, it is 67 years. Your age impacts the survivor benefits you can obtain as a surviving spouse.
What is meant by Blackout Period?
As a widow or widower, you typically begin obtaining spousal benefits at age 60. However, regardless of your age, you are eligible to be their guardian if the deceased’s child is younger than 16 years old. If enrolled in education between the ages of 16 and 18 or 19, your child will receive benefits directly from the age of 16 to 18 or 19.
The exclusion period is when you must wait before becoming eligible for spousal benefits again after your child turns 18 or 19 and before you turn 60.
Considerations to Keep in Mind
Depending on age, remarriage could affect your eligibility for spousal benefits. You will not be eligible if you remarry before turning 60 or 50 if you are an incapacitated survivor. However, if the marriage dissolves, your eligibility will be restored. Your eligibility for spousal survivor benefits is unaffected by remarriage after 60 years (or 50 years if you are disabled).
Occasionally, your social security benefits could be reduced if you also receive a government pension. A government pension offset (GPO) would reduce your spousal benefits by up to two-thirds if you did not pay social security taxes while employed.
To demonstrate your eligibility, you must present the necessary documentation. Examples include citizenship documents, mortality certificates, marriage licenses, and divorce decrees. Even though you will likely continue to receive survivor benefits for the remainder of your life, divorced spouses may be subject to restrictions.
