No, you can't collect two benefits at the same time
But don't count on receiving a double payment if your spouse passes before you. If you're entitled to both a retirement benefit and the survivors benefit, you'll receive only one — the larger — of the two amounts.
The widow(er)'s insurance benefit rate equals 100 percent of the deceased worker's primary insurance amount plus any additional amount the deceased worker was entitled to because of delayed retirement credits. (See §720.)
Surviving spouse, at full retirement age or older, generally gets 100% of the worker's basic benefit amount. Surviving spouse, age 60 or older, but under full retirement age, gets between 71% and 99% of the worker's basic benefit amount.
No. You can only have one as your retirement benefit. Your spouse would file for her/his own benefit.
If your spouse built up entitlement to the State Second Pension between 2002 and 2016, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount; PLUS. If your spouse built up entitlement to Graduated Retirement Benefit between 1961 and 1975, you are entitled to inherit 50% of this amount.
If you're eligible for retirement and spouse's benefits, you must apply for both, and you'll receive a combined benefit equaling the higher spouse's amount. This requirement is called “deemed filing” because when you apply for one benefit you are “deemed” to have applied for the other benefit.
Instead of the retired worker's benefit ending when he died, his widow could collect a survivor benefit for her lifetime. Since then, the eligibility rules for survivors have improved. The age requirements are lower, surviving ex-spouses are eligible, including surviving spouses and partners of same-sex relationships.
In many cases, the spouse can inherit your house even if their name was not on the deed. This is because of how the probate process works. When someone dies intestate, their surviving spouse is the first one who gets a chance to file a petition with the court that would initiate administration of the estate.
Answer: Both your current spouse and your ex could be entitled to survivor benefits based on your work record. Typically someone must be married nine months to qualify for survivor benefits on a current spouse's record. If the spouses divorced, the marriage must have lasted 10 years.
Have you heard about the Social Security $16,728 yearly bonus? There's really no “bonus” that retirees can collect. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a specific formula based on your lifetime earnings to determine your benefit amount.
The widow's penalty occurs when a surviving spouse's tax status reverts from married filing jointly to single. If you're a widow or widower, you can file a joint tax return for the year of your spouse's death.
Spouses and ex-spouses
Payments start at 71.5% of your spouse's benefit and increase the longer you wait to apply. For example, you might get: Over 75% at age 61.
Impact of remarrying: If you remarry before age 60 (or 50 if disabled), you typically won't be eligible to collect survivor benefits from your former spouse. However, if the subsequent marriage ends, you may become eligible again.
The first exception, which can be deemed as the Social Security spousal benefits loophole, works where an individual who remarries at 60 or later may still be entitled to Social Security survivors' benefits if the second marriage ends before the death of the first spouse.
If the deceased did not reach full retirement age, the surviving spouse can receive 100% of the retirement benefit. If the deceased reached retirement age, the surviving spouse can receive whatever the deceased was entitled to in the month of their death.
An executor/administrator of an estate can only withdraw money from a deceased person's bank account if the account does not have a designated beneficiary or joint owner and is not being disposed of by the deceased person's trust.
For a spouse who is not entitled to benefits on his or her own earnings record, this reduction factor is applied to the base spousal benefit, which is 50 percent of the worker's primary insurance amount.
The SSA cannot pay benefits for the month of a recipient's death. That means if the person died in July, the check or direct deposit received in August (which is payment for July) must be returned.
If the widow does not wait until age 60 to marry, she cannot claim the widow benefit on her first husband's record. This leaves her ineligible for Social Security benefits for the first 24 months after attaining age 60. Assume that she files for the spouse benefit from her second husband's record at age 62.
As a spouse, if you are eligible for benefits on both your own work record and your spouse's work record, you may be required to file for both benefits. We call this requirement “deemed filing,” because when you apply for one benefit, you are required or deemed to file for the other.
The Social Security 5-year rule refers specifically to disability benefits. It requires that you must have worked five out of the last ten years immediately before your disability onset to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).