Social Security: Surviving Spousal Benefits

[Music] hi this is yvette with aarp i lead workshops in my community to help older adults stay connected and age successfully in this advanced learning we'll cover a difficult but important topic social security benefits for surviving spouses and surviving divorced spouses if your spouse died you may be wondering if you can collect their benefits that depends on a few factors such as whether you were married or divorced at the time of their death and how long you were married let's watch a short video to learn more if my spouse dies can i collect their social security benefits you may be eligible to collect survivor benefits on a deceased spouse that could be up to 100 percent of what your spouse was getting from social security or what they were entitled to get if he or she hadn't started collecting yet how do i know if i'm eligible in most cases you have to be at least 60 years old to claim survivor benefits how much of your deceased spouse's benefit you get depends on your age when you claim just like regular social security benefits and you need to have been married for at least nine months unless the death was accidental or came in the course of military duty do you automatically get these benefits when a spouse dies if you are already getting spousal benefits then yes social security will make the switch from spousal to survivor benefits otherwise give the social security administration a call or visit your local social security office to apply you won't get a survivor benefit in addition to your own monthly social security payment you'll get the higher of the two amounts what if we were divorced before my spouse died you still might qualify for survivor benefits if you are married at least 10 years remarriage can also affect your eligibility to learn more go to aarp.org social security [Music] please note most in-person services are currently suspended due to covet 19. okay so we've covered the basics but how are survivor benefits calculated generally social security calculates the benefit for a surviving spouse or a surviving divorce spouse based on the deceased worker's full benefit amount which social security calls the primary insurance amount the primary insurance amount is the amount you collect if you start your benefit at full retirement age your full retirement age depends on your year of birth it used to be age 65 and is gradually increasing to age 67. social security also looks at whether the worker claimed benefits before they died if the worker had not claimed benefits and died before reaching for retirement age the full survivor benefits will be the amount the worker would have collected at full retirement age if the worker died before claiming social security and after reaching full retirement age the full survivor benefit would be the increased amount the worker would be collecting if he or she had started collecting in the month of death if the worker was already collecting social security before they died then the survivor benefit is based on the amount the worker would still be collecting if they were alive if the worker took early retirement with a reduced benefit then the survivor benefit is also reduced now let's hear from social security expert rob clark rob when can you claim survivor benefits as we heard in the video you can collect social security as a surviving spouse or surviving divorce spouse as early as age 60 which is two years earlier than you can collect under the social security retirement program social security can also pay a benefit at any age if you have a dependent child on the deceased record in your care and the child is under age 16 or disabled but right now let's just focus on collecting based on your age survivor benefits increase for each month you delay claiming from age 60 all the way up to your full retirement age let's look at an example uh let's say your spouse died before collecting social security and had a primary insurance amount of two thousand dollars remember that the primary insurance amount is the amount your spouse would have collected at full retirement age if you claim the benefit at age 60 you receive 71.5 percent or 1430 dollars per month now the benefit increases for each month you wait and if you wait and claim at your full retirement age then you would get the full survivor benefit of two thousand dollars per month so you'll get the highest survivor benefit if you claim it at your full retirement age unlike social security retirement benefits social security survivor benefits do not increase if you delay claiming past your full retirement age thanks rob of course some situations are a little more complicated for example if you're a surviving spouse who worked in a government job and did not pay social security taxes on your wages the government pension offset may reduce the social security you can collect on a deceased worker's record we explore this topic in more detail in the video windfall elimination provision and government pension offset another situation that can get a little complicated is when you're eligible for a survivor benefit and a retirement benefit you can't collect both at the same time but you do have options you could collect on one record early and then wait until you're older to switch to the other record to get a higher amount if you need assistance you can reach out to your local social security office by visiting ssa.gov locator or calling 800-772-1213 and a representative can help you make an informed decision about your benefits for safe and secure access to your social security information online you can create a my social security account at ssa.gov my account and for general information about social security check out aarp.org social security you can also visit learn.aarp.org where you'll find more information about social security and a variety of other topics such as medicare caregiving and fraud and finally check out this website for more advanced learnings about other social security topics including windfall elimination provision and government pension offset while you're there be sure to use the your questions answered tool to browse frequently asked questions if you don't see what you're looking for you can submit a question of your own volunteer certified financial planner professionals from the foundation for financial planning will answer every question submitted with an individual response within 10 days via private email thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: AARP Programs

Views: 33,194

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Id: etzdKL18y2s

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022