A widow who remarries before the age of 60 cannot receive survivor's benefits unless the later marriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment. A widow who remarries after age 60 (50 if disabled), can still collect benefits on their former spouse's record.
Unless you stipulated otherwise, under the USFSPA (Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act), a former spouse's award of a member's retirement pay continues until either the member dies or the former spouse dies (whichever is first), regardless of remarriage.
If you receive retirement or disability benefits based on your own work history, getting divorced and remarried will not change anything. However, if you receive benefits based on a former spouse's work history, getting remarried will typically cut them off in favor of your new spouse's work history.
In other words, the husband is less likely to outlive his wife and thus receive a spouse's pension. After the retiree's death, the spouse continues to receive the same monthly annuity under the 100-percent option, but half of the monthly annuity under the 50-percent option.
Your pension will continue even if you remarry.
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.
Getting Married
If you're receiving spousal benefits based on your former spouse's work record, those benefits will generally end upon your getting remarried, but you may be able to receive benefits based on your new spouse's work record, or on your own.
If part of a pension has been transferred to an ex-partner under a pension sharing order, or you used pension offsetting, this won't be affected if either of you remarries. But a pension attachment or earmarking order will usually stop.
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.
The current law requires that the widow be unmarried in order to claim widow benefits, unless the marriage occurred after the widow attained age 60. That is, a widow who remarries before age 60 has no claim to the widow benefits (so long as the remarriage remains intact) and therefore faces a marriage penalty.
Greater psychological well-being was highly correlated with being remarried or in a new romance 25 months after the spouse's death. It may be helpful for family, friends, and therapists to know that dating and remarriage are common and appear to be highly adaptive behaviors among the recently bereaved.
Even if your ex-spouse remarries, you are still eligible for a spousal or survivor benefit. Social Security will pay benefits to your ex- spouse, their current spouse and you, and no one's benefit will be reduced. I remarried. When can I receive a spousal benefit off my new spouse?
The pension remains payable while you remain widowed or a surviving civil partner. If you re-marry or start to cohabit, it is no longer payable.
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.
Approximately 2% of older widows and 20% of older widowers ever remarry (Smith, Zick, & Duncan, 1991). The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that each year, out of every 1,000 wid- owed men and women ages 65 and older, only 3 women and 17 men remarry (Clarke, 1995).
If you remarry after age 60
You maintain your eligibility for survivor benefits on your deceased spouse's earning record. However, you also become eligible for spousal benefits at age 62 on your new spouse's record. SSA rules allow you to claim the higher benefit, but not both.
A long-term widow's pension is payable of:
1/160 x deceased's final pay x deceased's total membership (including any enhancement given if the retirement was on ill-health grounds)
Since Congress passed the Retirement Equity Act in 1984, the spouse's survivor pension can only be given up with their written permission.
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.
If you have since remarried, you can't collect benefits on your former spouse's record unless your later marriage ended by annulment, divorce, or death. Also, if you're entitled to benefits on your own record, your benefit amount must be less than you would receive based on your ex-spouse's work.
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.
A widow's benefit is generally calculated on the benefit your late spouse was receiving from Social Security at the time of death. The AARP says that the actual amount of your payment will differ according to the following factors: If you have reached full retirement age, you may receive 100% of the benefit.
The loss of a spouse is the loss of a companion, a soulmate, perhaps of income, and possibly of social circles. When someone loses a husband or wife, it can feel like the loss of your own identity, even when you have been a very independent person in your relationship.