21 Dec How do my Social Security benefits change if my spouse dies?

Q. My husband and I both get Social Security. How do our benefits change if one of us dies?
— Retired

A. There can be several changes to your Social Security benefit if your spouse does.

A surviving spouse is entitled to a survivor’s benefit under certain circumstances, said Deva Panambur, a fee-only planner with Sarsi, LLC in West New York and an adjunct professor of personal finance at Montclair State University.

Those who may be eligible must fit into certain categories, he said

• A widow or widower age 60 or older (age 50 or older if disabled) and the marriage lasted for over 9 months, although there are some exceptions to the length of marriage rule.
• A widow or widower at any age who is caring for the deceased’s child who is under age 16 or disabled and receiving benefits on the deceased person’s record.
• A surviving divorced spouse. “This person gets the same benefit as a widow or widower if the marriage lasted 10 years or more,” Panambur said. “If the divorced spouse is caring for a child under the age of 16 or disabled, the 10-year length of marriage is not required. Remarriage after the age of 60 (50 if disabled) does not affect the eligibility for survivor’s benefit.”

Panambur said a widow or widower can receive full benefits at full retirement age or reduced benefits as early as age 60.

“The full benefit amount is the amount that the deceased spouse was entitled to at full retirement age unless he/she had already applied for Social Security, in which case that is the full benefit amount,” he said. “The full retirement age for people born after 1943 is between 66 years and 67 years.”

In your case, since both of you are over the full retirement age, the surviving spouse is eligible for 100% of the benefit that the deceased spouse was getting, he said. However, the survivor will not get both their own benefit and the survivor’s benefits, but the higher of the two amounts.

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This story was originally published on Dec. 21, 2020.

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