Hi. I recently lost my husband to covid he was 56. I called as. And they said when I reach 60 I can start collecting. He also had a life insurance policy. That makes me go over the 18,000 a year limit they gave me. Where does my husband's money go that they took out for all these years. Will I not ne entitled to any of it. Does it change at full retirement age. And I can make over that amount. Can I have my kids receive it at what his full retirement age was. I cant see how they can just keep it after all these years of him paying into it

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

First off, nothing you receive from a life insurance policy would prevent you from qualifying for Social Security widow's benefits. However, you must be at least age 60, or at least 50 and disabled, in order to be able to collect widow's benefits. Also, until you reach full retirement age (FRA) there is a limit on how much you can earn from working and still be able to receive widow's benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html). Once you reach FRA, though, you can potentially draw widow's benefits no matter how much you work and earn.

If you don't currently qualify for monthly widow's benefits, you can still likely claim a $255 one-time death benefit based on your husband's Social Security covered earnings. You'll need to file an application to claim that payment by calling Social Security if you haven't already done so.

Your children could potentially qualify for Social Security survivor benefits if they're under age 18, or 18 to 19 and still in high school, or at any age if they became disabled prior to age 22. It sounds like you, at least, will likely qualify for widow's benefits at some point in time, but there is no guarantee that paying Social Security taxes will ever translate into receiving benefits. The money collected from Social Security taxes is placed in a general trust fund, not an individual retirement account, and the trust fund is what is used to pay benefits to people who qualify for benefits. Social Security taxes paid by a deceased person can't be distributed to their heirs except in the form of survivor benefits.

It sounds like your best strategy for claiming benefits would likely be one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits as early as age 60 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits on your own record as early as age 62 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at full retirement age (FRA).

Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could help sort all of this out for you so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry