Survivor benefits provide monthly payments to eligible family members of people who worked and paid Social Security taxes before they died.
When a spouse passes, the SSA pays an eligible surviving spouse a percentage of the deceased's retirement benefits, depending on the deceased's age: If the deceased did not reach full retirement age, the surviving spouse can receive 100% of the retirement benefit.
The result is that only one Social Security monthly retirement benefit will be paid to the surviving spouse. That monthly retirement benefit check will be equal to the higher of: (1) The deceased spouse's Social Security monthly retirement benefit; or (2) The surviving spouse's own monthly retirement benefit.
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.
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.
Widows and widowers
These benefits are payable for life unless the spouse begins collecting a retirement benefit that is greater than the survivor benefit. Beneficiaries entitled to two types of Social Security payments receive the higher of the two amounts.
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.
In most states, a surviving spouse automatically inherits community property assets. This generally includes all property, such as the couple's home, bank accounts, and cars, that the couple comes to own during their marriage. However, property owned before the marriage, gifts, and inheritances are still separate.
Survivors benefits, or a “widow's pension” as it's sometimes called, refer to monthly Social Security payments made to the family members of a wage earner who has died. This income can help keep family finances on even footing during a very difficult time.
In general, as long as the surviving spouse had been married to the deceased for at least nine months prior to death, they will qualify for survivor benefits. The surviving spouse can claim survivor benefits as early as age 60, or age 50 if they have been declared by the Social Security Administration to be disabled.
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.
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.
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.
Each spouse owns a 50% interest in all community property and quasi-community property acquired during marriage. It is important to note that community property in California after death does not merely include the assets a married couple collectively owned; it also refers to any debt they collectively accumulated.
Medical debt and hospital bills don't simply go away after death. In most states, they take priority in the probate process, meaning they usually are paid first, by selling off assets if need be.
Following the death of a worker beneficiary or other insured worker,1 Social Security makes a lump-sum death benefit payment of $255 to the eligible surviving spouse or, if there is no spouse, to eligible surviving dependent children.
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.
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.
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)
Each survivor benefit can be up to 100% of your benefit. The amount may be reduced if the women start benefits before their own full retirement age, but they don't have to share — the amount isn't reduced because you've had more than one spouse.
Exactly how much in earnings do you need to get a $3,000 benefit? Well, you just need to have averaged about 70% of the taxable maximum. In our example case, that means that your earnings in 1983 were about $22,000 and increased every year to where they ended at about $100,000 at age 62.
It is a part of the Social Security Paycheck, which encompasses a range of benefits including retirement, post-retirement, child care, disability, care allowance, attendance allowance, and survival. The $1800 figure is close to the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit for 2024 due to a COLA increase.