I will be 61 at the end of this month. My husband passed away 14 yrs ago at age 42. We were married for 14 yrs. We have a son, now 25, who is autistic, lives mostly independently in special housing, receives survivor benefits. I have made a reasonably good living in medical sales. Business of late has not been good for the company and due to some unrealistic expectations I worry my job may be at risk. This could possibly happen just before the holidays, a difficult time to find jobs. My questions are:
Can I apply for and collect survivor benefits + unemployment benefits until I find a new job? I expect to find work again. If the new job salary isn't around my old income can I work at the new job and continue to collect survivor benefits until I reach FRA (66 & 6 mos I believe)? Will collecting survivor benefits in any of these scenarios affect my SS when I reach my FRA ( I already have worked longer and put more into SS now so my own payments would be higher than my husbands)? Thanks for whatever info you can provide. In Jan I will have been with this company for 16 yrs, the sudden job insecurity and possibility of having to job hunt at this point in my life has really done a number on my nerves!!

Hi,

It sounds like you could draw widow's benefits if you weren't working, but that may or may not be your optimal strategy. Your optimal filing strategy is likely one of the following:
1) File for reduced widow's benefits now or as soon as your earnings will permit benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits on your own record at age 62 or as soon as your earnings will permit benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at full retirement age.

If you are correct about your benefit rate being higher than your potential widow's rate, then option 1 would likely be the better choice. Drawing widow's benefits would not affect your retirement benefit rate when you subsequently switch to drawing benefits on your own record. But if you continue working, the Social Security earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking2.html) could affect the amount of benefits that you could receive until you reach full retirement age (FRA).

Our maximization software can factor in all of the above variables and determine which of the above filing strategies is best in your case, as well as when to apply for each type of benefit.

With regard to your first question, I can only tell you that drawing unemployment benefits wouldn't affect what you could be paid in Social Security benefits. However, I don't think the reverse is true. My understanding is that unemployment benefits are reduced if the recipient also receives Social Security. I'm no expert on unemployment benefits, though, so you would need to check with that agency to find out for sure.

Best, Jerry