{"id":1396,"date":"2017-01-09T10:39:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shct.wpengine.com\/littlerock\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2017-01-09T10:39:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:39:36","slug":"social-security-claiming-strategies-for-widows-and-widowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/2017\/01\/09\/social-security-claiming-strategies-for-widows-and-widowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security Claiming Strategies for Widows and Widowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-dek\">Retirement benefits guidance if you&#8217;ve lost a spouse or an ex-spouse<\/h2>\n<div class=\"article-date desktop-only\">January 6, 2017<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content resizable\">\n<div class=\"writer-block no-writer-images one-writer\"><span class=\"viewpoints desktop-only\">FEATURED EXPERT<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"writer-block-info\">\n<li class=\"writer-block-author one-writer\">\n<div class=\"writer-block-desc desktop-only no-image\"><span class=\"writer-block-name desktop-only\">By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nextavenue.org\/writer\/andy-landis\">Andy Landis<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"featured-image\">\n<p class=\"featured-image-caption-media-credit\">The rules for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nextavenue.org\/huge-payoff-claiming-social-security-wisely\/\">claiming Social Security benefits<\/a> are incredibly complicated and that\u2019s especially true for widows and widowers. Here\u2019s some guidance:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"main-post-content no-margin-first-paragraph\">\n<p>If you are widowed, you might be eligible to claim Social Security widow\u2019s or widower\u2019s payments. That\u2019s true even if you were divorced when your former spouse died, provided you were married for 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>If you are at least <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nextavenue.org\/social-security-retirement-age-76\/\">Full Retirement Age <\/a>(currently 66) when you file for Social Security, you get up to 100 percent of your spouse\u2019s Social Security payment. (Earlier filing means reduced payments, down to 71.5 percent at age 60 \u2014 not 62 like regular Social Security.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"pull-quote\">If you and your spouse are getting Social Security, you\u2019re over 66 and one of you dies, the survivor gets the higher of the checks for the rest of their life.<\/p>\n<p>Think of it this way. If you and your spouse are both getting Social Security, you\u2019re over 66 and one of you dies, the survivor gets the higher of the Social Security checks for the rest of their life.<\/p>\n<p>Caring for one or more kids? You could even get a 75 percent payment at any age, if you were married at the time of your spouse\u2019s death (or divorced after a 10-year marriage), have limited earnings and are caring for the surviving child under age 16.<\/p>\n<p>And remarriage after age 60 does not block your widow\u2019s or widower\u2019s payments. But remarriage before age 60 blocks payments for as long as the marriage lasts.<\/p>\n<h3>You Might be a \u2018Dualie\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>You can be \u201cdually eligible\u201d for widow\u2019s or widower\u2019s payments and your own Social Security. If so, you can take one benefit early, then switch to the other later. Even if you get reduced early payments on one benefit, the reduction does not carry over to the other.<\/p>\n<h3>Smart Claiming Strategies for Widows and Widowers<\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to claim Social Security wisely if you\u2019re a widow or a widower:<\/p>\n<p>Contact the Social Security Administration to learn two numbers: your widow\u2019s or widower\u2019s payment at your Full Retirement Age and your own payment at 70. That\u2019s when each benefit reaches its maximum. Then, the rule of thumb is to take the lower benefit first and the higher benefit second. It\u2019s like a double-harvest \u2014 you reap the wheat now while the corn continues to grow.<\/p>\n<p>Let me give you a few examples:<\/p>\n<p>Paul and Ruth are retired and over 66. Paul gets $1,500 a month from Social Security; Ruth gets $2,000. If either one dies, the survivor will get the higher payment of $2,000 a month for life.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another example: Lisa was widowed at 56. Her earnings \u2014 and therefore her Social Security payments \u2014 were high; her husband\u2019s were low. At 60, Lisa retired. She immediately started drawing a (reduced) widow\u2019s payment, 71.5 percent of what she would get at Full Retirement Age. At 70, she\u2019ll switch to her own (then maximum) Social Security, up to 132 percent of her Full Retirement Account payment for the rest of her life. There\u2019s no carry-over reduction for taking her widow\u2019s payments early. If Lisa remarries, her widow\u2019s payments will continue because remarriage over 60 can be disregarded.<\/p>\n<p>And one more: Carl was married to Mary for over 10 years, then divorced. Mary died five years later. Mary was a high earner; Carl is not. At 64, he retires and immediately starts his own (reduced) Social Security. At Full Retirement Age, he switches to (maximum) widower\u2019s payments on Mary\u2019s record. He gets 100 percent of what Mary would have gotten at her Full Retirement Age. There\u2019s no reduction for taking his own payments early.<\/p>\n<p>For more details on this subject, see my book, <a href=\"http:\/\/andylandis.biz\/SocialSecurityTheInsideStory.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Social Security: The Inside Story<\/em><\/a>, the Social Security Administration\u2019s s <a href=\"http:\/\/ssa.gov\/pubs\/10084.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Survivors Benefits<\/em><\/a> publication and Social Security Administration\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/ssa.gov\/survivorplan\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Survivor\u2019s Planner<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tpt.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a9 Twin Cities Public Television &#8211; 2017. All rights reserved.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retirement benefits guidance if you&#8217;ve lost a spouse or an ex-spouse January 6, 2017 FEATURED EXPERT By Andy Landis The rules for claiming Social Security benefits are incredibly complicated and that\u2019s especially true for widows and widowers. Here\u2019s some guidance: If you are widowed, you might be eligible to claim Social Security widow\u2019s or widower\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/2017\/01\/09\/social-security-claiming-strategies-for-widows-and-widowers\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":364,"featured_media":1395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uamscaregiving.org\/littlerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}