Common reasons for denial:
Your deceased spouse must have earned a certain number of credits for you to qualify for benefits. The SSA offers a handy calculator to determine the required credits. Remarriage before age 60: Remarrying before age 60 usually makes you ineligible for benefits.
Usually, you can't get surviving spouse's benefits if you remarry before age 60 (or age 50 if you have a disability).
Can I work and receive the survivor benefit? A special earnings limitation applies before FRA. 10 If you continue to work, are under FRA and earned more than $23,400 in 2025, your retirement benefit as well as the survivor benefit may be temporarily withheld.
As with retirement benefits, the amount of survivor benefits a family gets is based on a worker's average lifetime earnings. The more they earn, the higher the benefit. Benefits are based on how much the deceased would have collected at full retirement age if still living.
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.
The short version: Spousal benefits are available to retired workers' spouses or ex-spouses. They pay up to 50% of a worker's monthly retirement or disability benefit. Survivor benefits are paid to a surviving spouse or surviving ex-spouse when a Social Security beneficiary dies.
Generally SBP is an irrevocable decision. However, under limited circumstances, you may withdraw from SBP or change your coverage. As an SBP participant you have a one-year window to terminate SBP coverage between the 2nd and 3rd anniversary following the date you begin to receive retired pay.
Infrequent workers: Individuals who have insufficient earnings to qualify for Social Security, but are not late-arriving immigrants. Non-covered workers: Individuals with sufficient earnings, but who work in non-covered employment (primarily state and local government employees).
Applicants must be 16 years or older to apply. Do I need to be either a US Citizen or a Canadian Citizen? YES. YOU ALSO MUST HAVE A VALID US OR CANADIAN PASSPORT.
The Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) provides financial support to military spouses and/or children when a military member dies while on duty or after retirement. SBP provides eligible beneficiaries with a monthly payment known as an annuity. The recipient of an SBP annuity is referred to as the annuitant.
4. Exclusions Specified in the Policy. Most life insurance policies have exclusions that specify circumstances under which a death benefit will not be paid. Common exclusions include death from a risky activity, certain natural disasters, or acts of war.
H2: How long does the retirement process take? The approval timeline varies by benefit type. Retirement benefits typically take six weeks, while disability benefits may require three to five months. Survivors benefits average two to three months for processing.
If you're getting Survivor benefits, you may have earnings limits depending on your age. Your payment would be temporarily reduced if you earned above the limit in a year. Your Survivor benefit might also be reduced if you're getting a pension from government work.
Year 2025 Annual Earnings Amounts
If you attain full retirement age (FRA) in 2025, you can earn up to $62,160 through the month preceding FRA and not lose benefits. For every $3 earned over $62,160, you lose $1 of benefits. If you are under FRA for the entire year 2025, you can earn up to $23,400 and not lose benefits.
Who can get Survivor benefits. You may qualify if you're the spouse, divorced spouse, child, or dependent parent of someone who worked and paid Social Security taxes before they died.
As a surviving spouse, you're entitled to 100% of the deceased's benefits once you reach full retirement age. The full retirement age can differ based on the type of benefit. See this chart for the survivor's full retirement age.
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.
Ninety-five percent of never-beneficiaries are individuals whose earnings histories are insufficient to qualify for benefits. Late-arriving immigrants and infrequent workers comprise the vast majority of these insufficient earners.
Taxpayers who do not remarry in the year their spouse dies can file jointly with the deceased spouse. For the two years following the year of death, the surviving spouse may be able to use the Qualifying Widow(er) filing status.
If basis step-up does not occur, however, federal tax code section 121(b)(4) provides that a surviving spouse will get the $500,000 gain exclusion if the residence is sold not later than two years after the date of death of the spouse and if all other conditions are met (i.e., each spouse occupied the property for two ...
— Except as provided in the two preceeding sections, a widow shall not, by reason of her remar- riage, forfeit any property or any right to which she would otherwise be entitled; and every widow who has re-married shall have the same rights of inheritance as she would have had, had such marriage been a first marriage.