New marriage not likely to end survivor benefits

By Paula Burkes Comments 0
Published: November 19, 2008

Last week, I received a troubling letter from Cecilia Sims, a 66-year-old south Oklahoma City widow. She’d read a story I recently wrote on ways couples can boost their Social Security retirement benefits.

Sims incorrectly thought she’d lose the survivor benefits from her late husband, if she remarries. She didn’t work long enough to qualify for benefits on her own.

"My understanding is if I marry again, I lose my husband’s benefits — and can’t draw on a new husband for 10 years. The probability of one of us dying is very high before I could draw. I don’t draw much and if he didn’t draw very much, we could not afford it.

"So many older couples are just living together. I don’t find this acceptable. Why would the government cause people to live this way, because people have a desire to have someone in their lives and not to end their years in loneliness?”

Sims’ misunderstanding is common, said Larry Jones, public relations specialist with the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma City. "We hear that often,” he said. "The survivor benefit is the most misunderstood part of Social Security.”

Here are the facts

If widows or widowers remarry after age 60, they not only can keep their survivor benefits on their late spouses, but also may be eligible to draw a life benefit on their new spouses. Widows are eligible for up to 100 percent of their late spouses’ full benefits. Spouses are eligible for up to 50 percent of workers’ benefits, unless their own retirement would be higher.

Let’s say a widow draws a $400 death benefit on her late husband, and her new husband’s monthly retirement check is $1,000. She’d be eligible for a benefit totaling up to half of her new husband’s benefits, or $500. As far as Social Security accounting, $400 would be paid out of the fund for survivor benefits and $100 from the fund for retirement benefits to a total monthly check of $500.

There’s a one-year waiting period before recipients can draw on a new spouse. However, the wait period typically is waived, Jones said, if spouses, such Sims, already are entitled to certain other benefits.

A 10-year marriage requirement only comes into play when people are drawing spousal or survivor benefits on an ex-spouse.

If they are single and have a past marriage that lasted 10 years or more, people can draw spousal benefits on their ex-spouses’ earnings records, if they’re higher than their own. If their ex-spouses are deceased, they’re eligible for survivor benefits up to 100 percent of full benefits.

People can have subsequent marriages that last only a few years, but if they’re single, they can draw on a previous 10-year or longer marriage, beginning at age 62 — or 60, if their ex-spouse is deceased. If benefits are drawn before full retirement age, they’re reduced by up to 25 percent.

"We’ve had ex-spouses go years before they realize they or their children are eligible for survivor benefits,” Jones said.

Benefits are retroactive only to six months.

Social Security benefits unequivocally can be confusing, and particularly when it comes to marriages, divorces, remarriages and deaths of spouses. "Love is complicated,” Jones said.