My husband passed last april he was 53 and I was 47 is their any survivor benefits I can recieve our son was 17 he is now 18

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Since your son was under age 18 at the time of his father's death he could have potentially qualified for child's benefits, however, an application for benefits is required in order to be paid benefits. Assuming that a deceased worker paid into Social Security long enough to be insured for benefits, children of the worker can be paid benefits if they're unmarried and either under age 18, age 18 to 19 and attending high school, or disabled from an impairment that became disabling prior to age 22. Your son could still file for child's benefits, but he could only claim benefits for a maximum of 6 months retroactively.

Unless your son is disabled and you qualify as having a child in care, the earliest that you could qualify for widow's benefits is age 60, although you may qualify as early as age 50 if you are disabled.

Best, Jerry