My sister is 70 yoa. She collects a pension from the Dallas PD of $50,000. Her husband deceased two years ago. He was getting SS benefits when he passed. My sister has tried on two occasions to collect survivor benefits but was denied twice telling her that she makes too much money to get survivor benefits.
What should she do as I am told that she is entitled to his benefits.

Hi,

A person can be technically entitled to Social Security benefits without being eligible to be paid any benefits, and it sounds like that's probably true of your sister. Assuming that your sister didn't pay Social Security taxes on her earnings from the Dallas PD, then even if she meets the eligibility requirements for Social Security widow's benefits her benefits would almost certainly be reduced by 2/3rds of the amount of her PD pension. That's due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

So, it sounds like your sister can probably only be paid widow's benefits if her pension amount is less than 150% of her potential widow's rate. There's not enough information in your question for me to know whether your sister should be due any benefits or not. If your sister has already filed for benefits and if she disagrees with the outcome, she may want to consider filing an appeal (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf).

Best, Jerry