I retired from the Postal Service in 2010 under CSR. My husband is deceased but was receiving Social Security, we were married 25 years. I am working to qualify for my social security, and was told I only needed to make $6,000. before I can qualify. After I qualify I want to claim my husband’s benefits.

Hi. You wouldn't need additional earnings to potentially be eligible for widow's benefits. People can qualify for widow's benefits even if they've never worked. However, it sounds like any widow's benefits you qualify for would be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your CSRS pension due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). That could reduce your widow's rate to zero unless your widow's rate is more than 2/3rds of the amount of your CSRS pension.

If you have 40 quarters (QC) of Social Security coverage on your own account then you could qualify for Social Security retirement benefits based on your own Social Security earnings history as early as age 62. Your Social Security retirement benefit rate would likely be lowered due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), but the WEP provision never reduces a person's Social Security retirement benefit rate to zero (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf). So, I'm just speculating, but maybe you were told that you only need to earn $6000 to get to 40 QCs so that you can qualify for benefits on your own account. I have no way of knowing if that's correct, though, without knowing your full Social Security covered earnings history.

Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) is programmed to handle cases involving GPO and WEP, so you may want to consider using the software to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry