In summary, you typically do not lose your rights to your ex-husband's pension simply by remarrying, especially if you have legal documentation supporting your claim.
Monthly annuity payments to a surviving spouse generally continue for life unless your spouse remarries before age 55. If your spouse was married to you for at least 30 years, he or she can continue receiving benefits when there is a remarriage before age 55 that occurred after January 1, 1995.
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.
Your pension will continue even if you remarry.
If you remarry before age 50 – You won't be eligible for survivors or disability benefits as a surviving spouse unless your later marriage ends by divorce or annulment.
How Remarriage Affects Survivors' Benefits. You can't receive Social Security survivor's benefits if you remarry before 60. If you remarry after age 60 (50 if disabled), you can still collect benefits on your former spouse's record.
If you get Social Security disability or retirement benefits and you marry, your benefit will stay the same. However, other benefits such as SSI, Survivors, Divorced Spouses, and Child's benefits may be affected.
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.
When Spousal Support Automatically Ends on the Recipient's Remarriage. In most states—including California, Georgia, New York, and Texas—the obligation to pay alimony automatically ends when the recipient remarries, unless the couple had an agreement otherwise (more on that below).
Spouse benefit provisions of private pension plans reflect the influence of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) . Pension plans are not required by law, but once established, ERISA requires that they provide for annuities to spouses of deceased employees.
We discover that men who are uncertain about remarriage are likely to be influenced by their view of their first marriage, and this is often in the form of wife sanctification. In particular, widowers are concerned that a second marriage may not be as successful as their first.
you're eligible for some of your ex's Social Security
wives and widows. That means most divorced women collect their own Social Security while the ex is alive, but can apply for higher widow's rates when he dies.
You'll get any State Pension based on your husband, wife or civil partner's National Insurance contribution when you claim your own pension. You will not get it if you remarry or form a new civil partnership before you reach State Pension age.
It's important to know that you can ask for a share of your spouse's retirement benefit in your divorce. Even if your divorce decree awards you a share of the retirement benefit, though, you might still not be able to receive it unless you take certain additional steps after your divorce.
The Bottom Line. If you were married to them for at least 10 years, you may be able to collect Social Security benefits based on your ex's work record. If you meet the requirements, you can receive benefits equal to as much as 50% of your ex's retirement benefit.
No. Your pension will continue even if you remarry. Note: This rule changed in 1987. If you previously lost a CPP survivor's pension because you remarried, call us to find out if you are now eligible.
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 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.
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.
Marriage has its perks
Social Security covers both spouses, regardless of whether one or both brought home a paycheck over the years.
This is good news when former spouses are not on good terms. Your ex cannot “block” you from drawing your spousal benefit. In fact, he probably won't even know if you are drawing off him unless he calls SSA to ask.
Divorced people can receive survivor benefits of 71.5 percent to 100 percent of the late former spouse's benefit amount, depending on your age when you claim. In most cases, you still must have been married for 10 years. Your survivor benefits do not affect those paid to an ex's widow or widower, and vice versa.
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.