Survivor’s benefits for widows and widowers

If your spouse dies, you are still entitled to up to 100% of the deceased’s Social Security retirement benefits. Survivor benefits are also granted to remaining spouses if they have been married for at least 10 years and are currently unmarried.

You can start claiming survivor’s benefits as early as age 60 while disabled people or those who became disabled, provided that the disability occurred prior to or within seven years of their spouse’s death. More than that, as a widow or widower, you are also entitled to survivor’s benefits if you are caring for a minor or disabled child of the deceased worker.

One important thing to consider: if you decide to remarry before you turn 60 (or before age 50 in the case of disabled people), you will no longer receive survivor’s benefits. Similar to spousal benefits, if you are entitled to your own Social Security benefits based on your work as well as to survivor’s benefits, you will receive whichever benefit level is greater.

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