Re: Nine-Month Duration of Marriage Requirement Section 404 I was denied collecting on my deceased spouse's social security because we were married for only 2 months at the time of his death. The exception to this requirement is if, at the time of the marriage, the insured could not reasonably have been expected to live for nine months. Does this exception apply only to accidental death and not illness? My husband died from leukemia.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Accidental deaths are one of the exceptions to the 9-month duration of marriage requirement for widow's benefits. In other words, if a person dies from an accident within 9-months of their marriage, their widow(er) can still potentially qualify for widow's benefits even though they were married to the worker for less than 9 months. Social Security considers a person's death to be 'accidental' when all of the following apply:
a) He or she received bodily injuries through violent, external, and accidental means;
b) The insured worker died within three months after the day that the injuries were received; and
c) The worker's death was a direct result of the bodily injuries, independent of all other causes.

Note that Social Security's definition of 'bodily injuries' includes such things as an unexpected heart attack resulting from exertion. The following section of Social Security's operations manual details what they define as an accidental death: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200305105.

Deaths resulting from an illness are normally not classified as accidental, so if a person dies from an illness before having been married for at least 9 months then their widow(er) normally can't qualify for widow's benefits unless they meet a different exception to the duration of marriage requirement. Furthermore, even if a person's death is accidental, the exception to the 9-month duration of marriage requirement does not apply if, at the time of the person's marriage, they could not have reasonably been expected to live for at least nine months. In other words, if your husband had been diagnosed with leukemia and he wasn't expected to live for at least 9 months at the time you got married, you likely wouldn't be eligible for widow's benefits regardless of whether or not your husband's death was accidental.

There are other alternatives to the 9-month duration requirement, though, and those alternatives are outlined in section 401.F of the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.04/handbook-0401.html. For example, if you and your husband had a child together then you wouldn't need to have been married for at least 9 months in order potentially qualify for widow's benefits.

If your claim for widow's benefits was disallowed and if you believe that decision was incorrect based on any of the above information, you may want to consider filing an appeal request (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf).

Best, Jerry