Social Security Q&A: When Will I Qualify for Survivor’s Benefits and What Effect Will Working Have?
Social Security may be your largest or one of your largest assets. How you manage it, by deciding which benefits to collect and when, can make an absolutely huge difference to your lifetime benefits. And those with the highest past covered earnings have the most to gain from maximizing their Social Security.
I’ve been answering questions and writing columns about Social Security each week for the past two years on PBS NEWSHOUR’s website. The editors at Forbes asked me to post a Q&A each day from those columns. To see all my columns, please go to my software company’s site, www.maximizemysocialsecurity.com, and click More Press below the WSJ quote.
Today’s question asks when survivor benefits will be available and what effect continuing to work might have. The answer reviews how the survivor benefit can be calculated depending on different factors and explores a potential claiming scenario.
Question: My husband passed away in 2001. My minor child and I have collected Social Security since then. I was paid five months out of the year for having a minor in the household. I no longer qualify for that benefit since she turned 16. She will no longer qualify once she graduates from high school in May 2015. I don’t plan to file for Social Security until age 70. As a widow, what options, if any, do I have until then? Keep in mind that I will continue to work until that time. Do I qualify for widow’s benefits now or at age 60 (I was born in 1959)? Will my earnings affect the benefit received ?
Answer: You can’t collect widow’s benefits until age 60, but if you do so, they will be reduced relative to what you’d receive by waiting. If your husband was collecting a retirement benefit before he died and he collected it early, a special formula called the RIB LIM formula (as described in this previous column) will be used to calculate your widow’s benefit.
You will have the option, starting at age 62, to take a reduced retirement benefit. Depending on the specifics of your case, it may be best to take your widow’s benefit first, either at 60 or later, or take your retirement benefit first, starting at 62 or later. Only extremely careful software can suggest to you what’s best.
