You may be going through a very uncertain time right now after your husband, or wife, passed away.
It can be very overwhelming and emotional. You are certainly dealing with a flood of emotions and uncertainty, and you may be wondering about what your life will look like financially after their passing. Specifically, you may be wondering about social security. If your recently deceased spouse was collecting social security, can you still get it? What if they weren't collecting social security? Can you still get their benefit or is it gone? These are valid questions and concerns.
The good news is that there are social security survivor benefits available to surviving spouses but, there are some nuances and certain things you need to know about the survivor benefit such as how much is it and when can you take it.
If you are a surviving spouse, you can receive social security survivor benefits under your spouse's benefit as early as age 60. However, if you take it at age 60 then it is a reduced benefit amount. In fact, the benefit is reduced between 71.5% and 99% between age 60 and your full retirement age. Once you reach your full retirement age, you can receive 100% of the social security survivor benefit under your spouse's benefit.
The benefit amount of your deceased is either the benefit they were receiving or the benefit they would have qualified for at the time of their passing based on age and earning history if they hadn’t started collecting their benefit.
But the bottom line is it is important to note that if you wait until your full retirement age you will get the full social security amount that your spouse was receiving or would have received.
Also, once you reach age 62 you can then apply for your own benefit. If your own benefit is higher than your survivor benefit under your spouse’s social security, you can receive your own benefit since yours is the higher of the two benefits.
Unfortunately, you cannot collect both social security benefits. This can potentially present financial planning issues because if both you and your spouse were retired and collecting social security benefits, when one spouse passes away one of the social security benefits will stop and go away since you cannot collect both. Therefore, even if you are going to collect your spouse’s survivor benefit since it is higher than your benefit, your overall income will be less than it was before.
Moreover, it’s important to mention that social security survivor benefits are different than spousal benefits. Survivor benefits are relevant when a spouse passes away. Spousal benefits are relevant when both spouses are still alive.
Even if one spouse never worked under social security, that spouse may be eligible for a social security spousal benefit if they are at least age 62 and the other spouse is collecting social security benefits.
For example, if a wife has never worked under social security but is age 62 and her husband is collecting his social security benefit then the wife would qualify for spousal benefits.
Between ages 62 and full retirement age the spousal benefit is permanently reduced. However, at full retirement age the spousal benefit could be 50% of the other spouse’s benefit.
For example, if a wife waits until her full retirement age of 67 then she could receive 50% of her husband’s benefit as a spousal benefit even if she has never worked under social security.
Bottom line is that as a spouse you may be entitled to benefits under social security, either under survivor benefits if your spouse passed away or under spousal benefits if your spouse is still alive. It’s important to work with your financial planner in regard to your specific situation and goals so that you have a plan in place to make sure you are building the life you want in retirement and planning for unexpected events like and untimely death of one spouse.