20 Sep How long do you have to be married for Social Security?

Q. If I get married and pass away before being married for 10 years, is my surviving spouse eligible for my Social Security benefits?
— Spouse-to-be

A. We hope you live long enough to start taking Social Security benefits, but you won’t have to worry about a 10-year limit for your spouse.

In most cases, you only need to be married for one year to be able to collect Social Security benefits off of a deceased spouse’s earnings record, said Howard Milove, a certified public accountant with Access Wealth in Roseland.

The one-year rule does not apply if you are the parent of your deceased spouse’s child, Milove said.

He offered this example: Say John, 45, and Jane, 44, are not married and have a 10-year-old son, Phillip. John and Jane get married in September and six months later, John dies. Jane would be eligible to collect Social Security benefits off of John’s earning record even though they were not married for at least one year because Jane is Phillip’s parent.

Jane could collect widow benefits – assuming John worked long enough to qualify for benefits prior to his death – because she is caring for Phillip who was John’s son and is under age 16, Milove said.

In general, benefits can be collected for widows or widowers who are age 60 or older, or a widows or widowers of any age if caring for deceased’s child under age 16 or for a child who is disabled and receiving disability benefits, he said.

“The 10-year rule you may be referring to in your question relates to the minimum amount of years you must have been married to an ex-spouse,” he said.

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This story was originally published on September 20, 2019.

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