Dear Larry,
Should I file an appeal or a new claim for survivor benefits?

Over the last seven years Social Security has told me so much wrong information. First they told me that if I filed for my own benefits early, that it would reduce not only my retirement benefit, but also the survivor benefit from my late husband. And so I missed a year’s worth of retirement benefits from age 62-63. Your site showed me that they were wrong, and I filed for my benefits at 63; I tried to have my application back dated to age 62, based on the incorrect information they told me, but since I did not have it in writing and signed, my request was denied. Then many times since then they have told me that when I did file for survivor benefits, I would not be entitled to receive the 7 months of delayed retirement credits my husband had earned at the time of his death.

In June I called to file for widow benefits effective this October, and was pleasantly surprised when the amount they told me was within a couple of dollars of what I had calculated it should be including his delayed credits. They set up another phone appointment several days later with someone at my local office.

She went over my information and everything sounded good, except that I needed to mail in my original marriage certificate. It is a precious document that cannot be replaced with the original signatures in ink. I was worried, and thinking about how to mail it in safely, then overnight it occurred to me that the local offices are open for some in person functions. I called and asked if I could bring my marriage certificate in for verification. They checked and told me I could, so I did the next business day. The lady at the desk looked at it, made a copy and directed it to the person handling my claim, including attaching my husband’s and my names and our social security numbers to the copy. Approximately a month later my claim was denied.

When I called the national social security office to ask why, apparently, the local person handling my claim never looked at my marriage certificate. We had been married 29 years when my husband passed in 2014. The person from the national number tried, but was unable to set a phone appointment with the local office, so she flagged the local office to call me within 7 days to set an appointment. That timing has come and gone.

I am worried that the appeal process will take longer than filing a new claim, but I also worry that not following that route might also be a problem. My full retirement age for widow benefits is this October, and I am hoping to see that increase in my November’s payment. I started this process in June thinking that would allow plenty of time.

Thank you,
Suzanne

Hi Suzanne. Either an appeal or a new claim should resolve your problem eventually, but like you I would be concerned that filing an appeal could end up delaying a resolution. Appeals are handled in Social Security's regional offices, and those offices often have lengthy backlogs of cases to be worked.

In some cases it's critical to file an appeal as opposed to filing a new claim, but that's only when the filing date of the original claim is material. Since you want to claim widow's benefits effective with a future month, that shouldn't be an issue for you. I think I would lean toward filing a new claim in your particular situation, but filing an appeal should also end up resolving your problem.

Best, Jerry