Larry, I'm 62, a widow, and still working. My monthly SS retirement income is now larger than my late husbands SS retirement. MY husband died young and never took his SS. 1. If I stop working, can I take my late husbands SS (even if it is less than my SS)? 2. When I turn 66.8 months (or 70), switch to my SS. 3. If I don't work and I take my husbands SS, will my SS still grow through age 70 or will it remain the same as would be when I stopped working? Thank you
Hi. You couldn't be paid your husband's actual benefits, but you could file for widow's benefits without being required to file for your own benefits. That would allow you to potentially collect widow's benefits while letting your own benefit rate continue to grow. Your own benefit rate would continue to increase until you reach age 70, even if you're collecting widow's benefits and even if you're not working.
Your own Social Security retirement benefit rate is based on an average of your highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings. If you start drawing your own Social Security benefits at your full retirement age (FRA), your retirement benefit rate would be equal to your primary insurance amount (PIA). If you stop working and paying Social Security taxes, your PIA wouldn't increase except for cost of living increases. However, even if you stop working your actual monthly benefit amount would continue to grow until age 70 as long as you delay drawing your own benefits. That's because your benefit rate would be reduced for age if you started drawing your own benefits prior to FRA, and because you'd be credited with delayed retirement credits (DRC) of 2/3rds of 1% per month for every month that you wait past FRA to start collecting your own benefits up to age 70.
In other words, regardless of whether or not you are working, if you start drawing your own benefits prior to FRA you would be paid less than your full PIA, and if you wait past your FRA to start drawing your own benefits you'll be paid more than your full PIA. And, collecting widow's benefits while delaying your own benefits would have no adverse effect on the calculation of your own benefit rate. You can't be paid both your own benefits and a full widow's benefit at the same time, though, so once you've applied for both benefits you can only be paid the higher of the two benefit rates.
Depending on how much you are earning, it may even be possible for you to collect at least some widow's benefits even before you stop working. Your best strategy for claiming benefits is almost certainly one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits now 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 on your own record now or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at full retirement age (FRA).
Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could help sort all of this out for you so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.
Best, Jerry
