My husband began receiving SSDI benefits at age 64, and those disability benefits automatically converted to retirement benefits at his full retirement age last fall. MaxiFi recommends he suspend his retirement benefit now and reinstate it at age 70. There doesn’t appear to be a way to tell MaxiFi that he started his benefits with SSDI. When it comes to the suspension strategy, does that detail matter? That’s my first question. My second question is what happens if he dies during the suspension? Our concern is that if he dies while not receiving benefits, there will be no benefits available to me as a widow. Will a survivor benefit be available to me and, if so, at what rate (the amount he’s currently receiving, the amount he would have received had he reinstated before death, some other amount altogether)? Thank you!

Hi. No. The fact that your husband started out collecting Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits is irrelevant. Your husband can still be credited with delayed retirement credits (DRC) for every month that he suspends his benefits between his full retirement age (FRA) and age 70. That would raise his benefit rate by roughly 2/3rds of 1% for each month of suspension, and that increase could potentially be passed along to you in the form of widow's benefits.

If your husband dies while his benefits are suspended it won't have any adverse effect on your ability to collect widow's benefits. In the event that your husband dies while his benefits are suspended, your maximum widow's rate would be calculated at 100% of the benefit rate that he would have been due if he had started collecting his benefits effective with his month of death. Any DRCs your husband accrued prior to his month of death would still be credited when calculating your widow's benefit rate.

Best, Jerry