My husband passed away at age 56, due to cancer. He worked full time up until 3 months before his death. I was 48 when he passed away and our son was 18 years old. I work as a Cafe Manager with the School Board and I am in La Teachers Retirement. We do not pay into Social Security. I have been in Teachers Retirement 26 years. I worked in the public from 1984-1994 and then off and on with second job since 2015. My question is can i draw widows benefits, if so at what age? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like you could qualify for widow's benefits as early as age 60, but once you start drawing your pension from the school system your widow's benefits will almost certainly be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your pension due to the government pension offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). That could reduce your widow's benefit amount to zero unless your widow's rate is more than 2/3rds of the amount of your teacher's retirement pension.

You may be able to file for widow's benefits before you start drawing your teacher's retirement pension, in which case no offset would be applied to your widow's benefits until you file for your teacher's retirement pension. However, if you claim widow's benefits prior to your full retirement age (FRA) your benefit rate would be reduced for age and your benefits could be subject to full or partial withholding due to Social Security's earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html).

Your best filing strategy depends on a number of factors, so you may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) when you're nearing age 60 to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry