I filed for the first time with my spouse about 6 weeks ago (September 21). The SS agency confirmed that our first payments would be seen near the end of December (in 5 weeks).

About a week ago, my spouse passed away which changes the situation. I am currently 66, and my husband was nearly 67 when he passed. His benefits would be higher than mine, so I was thinking that the correct strategy would be to:
- cancel or suspend my filing, and let my account continue to accrue over the next few years
- meanwhile file on my spouse's account

Does this make sense and is it still possible given that we filed (but still have not drawn our first payment)? What would you suggest as the correct strategy?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

You don't mention the type of benefits you filed for (e.g. retirement vs. spousal), so I'm not sure exactly what you need to do. Also, your best strategy at this point would depend on the comparative benefit amounts that you could receive on your own work record vs. your husband's work record.

If you were scheduled to start receiving payments in December, that would indicate that you chose November as your initial month of entitlement. I'm going to assume that what you mean is that both you and your husband filed for your own respective retirement benefits starting with November. If your own benefit rate if you waited until age 70 would be higher than your current widow's rate, you would probably want to withdraw the application that you filed for retirement benefits and instead file just for widow's benefits. Your widow's benefits won't get any higher if you wait past your full retirement age to start drawing them, so you'd almost certainly want to start them effective with the month of your husband's death. You could then switch to your higher retirement benefits when you turn age 70.

If you were to suspend your own retirement benefits instead of withdrawing your application, you couldn't be paid widow's benefits while your own benefits are in suspense. So, you definitely don't want to do that. But, if your own retirement benefit rate wouldn't be any higher than your widow's rate even if you waited until age 70 to apply, there would be no need to withdraw your application. In that case you could just apply for an excess widow's benefit to be paid in addition to your own retirement benefits, and the total would be the same as if you had just filed for widow's benefits only.

For example, say Jane has filed to start her retirement benefits effective with November 2018, which is the month she reaches her full retirement age of 66. Jane's full retirement age benefit rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA) is $1000. Jane's benefit rate would be $1320 if she waited until age 70 to start drawing, but she chose to file at age 66.

Jane's husband had also filed to start drawing his benefits effective with November 2018 at age 67, but he died at the beginning of November so he ended up not being entitled to any payments. Jane's husband benefit rate was scheduled to be $2000, and since Jane is already full retirement age she would be eligible to receive that rate as a survivor. But, Jane couldn't receive both her own retirement benefit rate and her husband's full rate, just the higher of the two. So, in this example, Jane would be paid her own retirement rate of $1000 plus an excess widow's benefit of $1000 (i.e. $2000 - $1000) to give her a combined rate of $2000.

There would be no need for Jane in the example above to withdraw her application for retirement benefits. Instead, she would just need to apply for the additional widow's benefits. However, if Jane's own retirement rate if she waited until age 70 to start drawing would be higher than her widow's rate, she would be better off withdrawing her claim for retirement benefits and instead file just for widow's benefits only. Jane could then draw the widow's benefits until age 70, at which time she could reapply for her own higher retirement benefits.

You might want to strongly consider using our software to sort all of this out for you in order to make sure that you choose the correct strategy.

Best, Jerry