I am currently a 50 year old widow, and my husband passed away at 56 (last year). He recieved disablility confiration right before he passed away from cancer, so we never collected any money. We have always been a two income family (with me earning slightly more than my husband the last several years). Our child is 25 and lives at home while going to school full time for a master's degree. I was shocked to find out that I am not eligible to received any money from Social Security except filing widow's SS benifits at the age of 60 under my husband and not filing for my own until 70. I'm confused and the Social Security agents are not the best source of information. Can I file at 60 under my husband and still continue to work? How do I deal with the complete loss of a second income in the mean time?? Am I not supposed to receive some sort of income from SSDI? The only thing I've received from SS was a $250 check that didn't even cover the flowers at the funeral (much less the funeral itself). I feel very lost in this whole process.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

It's correct that you couldn't receive survivor benefits until you are at least age 60, unless you're disabled or you have an eligible child in your care. For a child to be eligible for benefits, they must be either a) under age 18 or b) 18 to 19 and still in high school, or c) disabled from an impairment that began before age 70.

Even at age 60 (under current law) your benefits could be withheld if you are working and earning too much. Currently in 2018, a widow(er) at age 60 would have $1 of his or her benefits withheld for each $2 that they earn in excess of $17,040 during the calendar year (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html).

Assuming that you aren't eligible sooner under the conditions noted above, your best strategy is likely one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits at age 60 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits at age 62 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at your full retirement age.

Normally, you 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. Our maximization software could sort all of this out for you and help you determine your optimal strategy.

Best, Jerry