I am 60 in Sept. husband 64 in May. If I lost him, now or when I am 62, he already gets SS since 62, should I try to keep working? Poor health, both of us. My SS would never be as much as his because I took 23 yrs off to raise his kids. If somehow I can keep working, should I? Can I get my benefits at 62 and his also? Thank you for your advice. Also, my mother divorced my dad when I was only 2. If he dies before her, can she get his benefits? They were only married a couple of years though. He tried to get out of paying child support for me too. He moved on and had another family he wanted to spend his money on instead. My mom never asked for a raise in child support at all, he only paid 48.00 a month and asked me to write a letter when I was 18 as I moved away from my mom but only for 30 days and my dad was supposed to pay child support until I was 21 but didn’t want to. I wrote 2 letters, one the truth, that I moved back home in 30 days, and one that was a lie, that I moved out and never moved back. I let him choose which letter to send to the child support office. He chose the lie and child support ended. It was a difficult childhood. I dropped out of school in Jr. High to help my mom with bills. I lived with her many more years and she had to live with me and my husband and his kids many times through the years. Thank you for your advice and your time. Be safe and be well. I hope you have a mask and gloves.

Hi,

Continuing to work and pay into Social Security could only impact your benefit rate significantly if your own Social Security retirement benefit rate would be higher than your potential spousal rate. Unreduced spousal benefits are calculated based on 50% of the worker's primary insurance amount (PIA), so your own PIA would have to be more than 50% of your husband's PIA in order for your ongoing earnings to make much of a difference in the total benefit amount that you could draw. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing at full retirement age (FRA).

If your health problems are severe enough to keep you from working then you should probably consider filing for Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits. SSDI benefits are paid at the rate of the disabled person's PIA, so drawing SSDI would be like drawing your unreduced Social Security retirement benefits early.

You can only be paid essentially the higher of your own benefit rate or your spousal rate, not both. But, if your husband dies before you start drawing benefits, you could then potentially file either for just your own benefits or just your widow's benefits, then file for the other benefit later. The most that you could be paid as a widow is a) the higher of your husband's reduced benefit rate, or b) 82.5% of his PIA.

You'll have to decide for yourself whether or not to start drawing your benefits at age 62. All I can tell you is that if you do take your benefits at age 62 your rate will be reduced by roughly 30% or more from the rate you'd get if you waited until FRA to start drawing, and you'd be stuck with that reduction for as long as both you and your husband are living. However, taking your own benefits at age 62 wouldn't have any adverse effect on your potential survivor benefit rate as a widow.

You may want to consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully explore your options so that you can make an informed decision on when to start drawing your benefits. The software also allows you to enter projected future earnings so that you can gauge what effect continuing to work would have on your benefit rate.

Your mother couldn't qualify for any benefits from your father's Social Security record if they divorced before being married for at least 10 years.

Best, Jerry