My parents were married for more than 20 years. My dad remarried for about 10 years and was married when he past in 2011. His widower is receiving widower ss. My mom receives a pension from Municipal Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, which came from working in Chicago Public Schools, which didn't take out for ss. Can she received a divorced widower ss? She does and has not received any ss. And how do I, her daughter go about helping her to receive it?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

The fact that your father's widow is drawing benefits from his record would have no adverse effect on your mother's potential divorced survivor benefits. However, there is a Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision, and it sounds like that will likely apply in your mother's case. GPO can cause a person's Social Security survivor benefits to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of any government pension(s) (e.g. federal, state, local) that they receive which are based on their earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). Whether or not that would reduce your mother's survivor rate to zero depends on the amounts of her survivor benefit and her municipal pension.

You can assist your mother with applying for benefits, but she would normally need to be with you. If you call Social Security to initiate the application process, Social Security will need to be able to speak with your mother in order to verify her identity.

Best, Jerry