I have been denied any social security widow's benefits from my late husband's social security.

My birthday was May 3 1951. So I am full retirement age and have been since May 2017.

I have a social security history that has put me in the position of having extremely incorrect information being provided to me directly by social security specialists.
I could really use some help.
I will try to be clear.

At 62, I filed for ss benefits. I had been unemployed for almost three years.
I was told I had the higher benefit... and had to file on my own benefits, not my ex-husband ( he was still alive ; we had been married for 23 years, and had been divorced since 2003)

13 months after I filed, I got a part time job, and tried to suspend or withdraw, but was told by SS I was barred from withdrawing after 1 year, and I could not suspend.

During those years up until last July, because I was earning a part time salary, I had to pay back a significant amount of social security payments.

Last July I was able to suspend because I reached my full retirement age on May 3, 2017.

( It took me three months, to finally find a person at SS who understood I had the right to suspend and who finally made the arrangements...I spoke to five specialists, including three in person here in NYC who gave me assorted seriously incorrect information).
I have not been receiving ss now since July 2017, and i have been paying medicare directly.

This April 28, 2017 I learned my ex-husband had died at the end of April, and I went in to SS at 123 william street here in Manhattan, where I was told I would qualify for widow benefits from my husband, and after a long session was told everything, including the amounts the representative told me I was entitled to, would be confirmed in t he mail. I was told I would be receiving his approx $1900 a month, we even agreed on how much I wanted withheld. And that I no longer need to pay medicare as it would come out of the benefit once again.

Last week I received a notice i have been denied and have 60 days to appeal.

The denial says

" You do not qualify for widow's benefits because you are entitled to an equal or larger benefit on another social security record.
You are not due any other Social Security benefits. In the future, if you think you may qualify for benefits from us, you will need to apply again. "

Along with this notice I also received a SS notice, for the first time, that I may be entitled to some retirement benefits from a private employer.
I have already applied for this private pension which matured when I turned 65, and I have been receiving those payments since then. I have no idea if this is connected to the denial, but i do know that back when I decided to take my ss benefits at 62, it was because a ss specialist looked at my private pension and my social security, and said I was much better off taking the 25% hit on social security, than the 50% hit that was imposed on the private pension if I took it at 62 ( I could take it early but the private pension had a much bigger discount, and paid out in full at 65, earlier than ss at 66... the social security specialist told me to take social security.... even though they deny they give advice) .
I relied on his calculation.
I had no idea this might be a terrible mistake... and I have no idea if it really was.

I do know that once again social security is contradicting itself, and provides no regulations for me to evaluate my position.

And I am a 67 year old woman, a divorced widow, and this does not seem right to me.

What should I do?
Hire a consultant?
Hire lawyer?
Or move on because I have no legal right to payment?

I am happy to provide any other information you need to help me.
Rebecca

Hi Rebecca,

I can't really advise you what to do, but I can try to explain your position. Once you file for retirement benefits on your own record like you did at age 62, that becomes your primary benefit for life. If you later become eligible for a higher benefit on another record, your benefit rate on that record would just be a partial benefit essentially equal to the difference between that benefit rate and your own. All of that's true even if you voluntarily suspend your own benefits. There is no option for stopping your own benefits and receiving a different benefit instead.

And, even if your survivor rate is higher than your own benefit rate you couldn't be paid the partial survivor benefit described above while your own benefits are suspended. That's because of the amendments passed by Congress in 2015 (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/suspendfaq.html).

Since your ex was still living when you filed for benefits at age 62, you could not have filed for divorced spousal benefits on his record at that time without also filing for your own benefits. Therefore, your only apparent option at age 62 was to file for your own benefits or no Social Security benefits at all.

Bottom line, it sounds like where your at is that you've suspended your own benefits and filed for surviving divorced spousal benefits. If your application for survivor benefits has been disallowed the likely reason is that your own retirement benefit rate (even if your benefits are suspended) is higher than your survivor rate. However, I have no way of knowing if that's true in your case so I can't tell you whether or not the determination you received is correct.

If you have reason to believe that your survivor rate is higher than your own retirement benefit rate, then it sounds like you should probably consider filing for an appeal of your disallowance (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf). You could also try hiring a lawyer or consultant to help you, or possibly opt for our expert review service, but I can't promise you that any of those options would improve your situation.

I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful.

Best, Jerry