Greetings, Larry,
I am making an inquiry for my sister who recently lost her husband.
He was an extremely hard worker and very conscientious about leaving his survivors well off after his passing.
Unfortunately, his wife/widow has now been informed that she makes too much money at her job and cannot
collect survivors benefits. I have never heard of such a travesty! She cannot retire for about another year but, she deserves what her husband worked so hard for to make sure she was well taken care of.
Please tell me who she can contact and how to straighten out this debacle.
If you choose to contact me by phone, please leave a message so I do not miss your call. Often times I do not answer unknown numbers due to so many telemarketers.
Thank you very much, Sir.

Hi,

You don't mention your sister's age so I can't be sure, but I'm assuming from what you've described that she is under her full retirement age (FRA). If you apply for Social Security benefits prior to FRA, whether it's widow's benefits or retirement benefits on your own work record, then some or all of your benefits may need to be withheld depending on how much you're earning. That's due to the Social Security earnings test, which you can find out more about by reading the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html.

If you'd like to express a complaint about Social Security regulations, the best person to contact is probably your congressional representative. Social Security regulations are passed into law by Congress, and only Congress has the power to amend the Social Security regulations.

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

Normally, your sister would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher record when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could sort all of this out for your sister and help her determine her optimal filing strategy.

Best, Jerry