When the SSA is made aware of the death of a person receiving a SS benefit, do they as a matter of policy notify persons that would be eligible for a survivor's benefit? If yes, would their failure to do so likely form the basis for a successful "Mis-information Application" to recover more than 6 months in arrears survivor's benefit?
The specifics of my situation are I have made a restricted application at FRA for spousal benefit on the work record of a former spouse. I intend to apply for the benefit on my own record at age 70. The SSA thus has the knowledge that I would be a potential beneficiary should my Ex predecease me. Since I have not seen this Ex in over 25 years and our social networks do not overlap, I conceivably would remain unaware of the event. Can I count on the SSA to inform me or to I need to take measures to insure that I would find out via other channels? Thank you.

Hi,

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will only notify individuals of their potential benefit eligibility if they are aware of the person's existence, and only in limited circumstances such as when a person receiving widow(er) benefits is eligible for higher retirement benefits. I have never heard of a case in which failure to notify someone of their potential entitlement was interpreted as official misinformation, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't or hasn't happened.

In the situation you describe, though, a new application may not be necessary in the first place. If you are already receiving divorced spousal benefits and your ex dies, SSA would automatically convert your benefit rate to the higher survivor rate with no action required on your part. However, you would need to take it upon yourself to apply for your own retirement benefits at age 70 if your own benefit rate would be higher at that time. And, if your ex dies after you've switched to your own retirement benefits and if your survivor rate would be higher than your retirement rate, it's unlikely that SSA would notify you of your potential entitlement. If that's the situation you eventually find yourself in and you wouldn't have any other way of knowing if your ex dies, the safest thing to do would be to check with SSA regarding potential surviving divorced spousal entitlement every 6 months in order to prevent a loss of benefits.

Best, Jerry