I am helping my sister with claiming her widow social security benefits, and am trying to understand what her benefit eligibility is. She is currently 62 years old and is eligible for her own Social Security Benefit based on her work history. Her full retirement age is 66 years 6 months.

Her spouse died at age 64 in January 2019. He was disabled and began receiving a disability benefit 9/1/2018 of $2390 per month.

SSI has provided a projected widow benefit at her full retirement age of 66 years 6 months to be 82.5% of his disability benefit or approximately $1971 per month. If she were to claim a widow benefit now, her benefit would be 80.7% of $1971 or $1591 per month. Does this seem to be correct? My understanding is that she is entitled to a widows benefit equal to 100% of her spouses disability benefit immediately. Please provide your analysis.

Also, will your program complete an analysis based on these paramaters/ exact situation using exact dates?

Thank you

Hi,

No, that doesn't sound right unless your friend's husband received reduced Social Security retirement benefits instead of or before receiving disability benefits. A widow's rate at full retirement age (FRA) of 82.5% of the deceased spouse's full benefit rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA), could only apply if the deceased spouse received reduced Social Security retirement benefits prior to their death. Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits are unreduced benefits, so if that's all that your friend's husband received prior to his death then she would be eligible for 100% of his PIA if she starts drawing at FRA. By the way, if your friend was born in 1957 her FRA for widow's benefits would be age 66 & 2 months, even though her FRA for retirement benefits on her own record would be 66 & 6 months. The reason for that has to do with when the legislation raising the retirement age was passed.

It sounds like your friend's best strategy would likely be one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits now or as soon as her earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to her own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits on her own record now or as soon as her earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at her full retirement age (FRA). However, if your friend's husband received reduced Social Security retirement benefits prior to his death then it would likely be more advantageous for her to claim widow's benefits at some point prior to FRA.

Normally, your friend would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher record when it reaches it's highest potential rate. And yes, our software can analyze this type of scenario and determine your friend's likely optimal strategy, but she will need to clarify whether or not her husband received any reduced Social Security retirement benefits prior to his death.

Best, Jerry