Surviving divorced spouses
Divorced spouses may qualify for survivor’s benefits that are similar to those for a widow or widower if the marriage lasted at least ten years. That ten-year requirement is lifted in cases where the divorced spouse is caring for the deceased parent’s child who is under 16 or disabled. Divorced spouses also lose survivor benefits if they remarry before age 60.
Surviving children younger than 16
Social Security survivor benefits provide critical protection for families with children. When a widow or widower is raising the deceased worker’s child, the parent’s age doesn’t matter to the SSA. Benefits may go to the surviving parent and the surviving child.
Brandon and Samantha are Baby Boomers whose old romance is rekindled on the dance floor at their 40th high school reunion. She’s divorced, and he’s widowed. Brandon, 58, has a 12-year-old son, Tyler, from his prior marriage. Samantha, 57, has no children. Brandon and Samantha waste no time getting married, and for a while, life is good. He makes $100,000 per year as a contract manager at an aerospace firm. She works part time at the mall. Three years later, Brandon is killed in a car accident. At that point, Samantha and Tyler each qualify for survivor’s benefits of about $1,570 per month. Samantha’s benefit would be about $2,090 at her full retirement age, but she can’t afford to wait. These benefits help the household stay afloat until Tyler graduates from high school and enrolls in college.
Surviving parents
Older parents of a breadwinner potentially qualify for survivor benefits if their adult child dies. To be eligible, they must be at least 62 and must prove that they relied on the child for half of their financial support. Also, surviving parents must not be eligible for their own Social Security benefits that exceed what they might get as survivors. If two living parents both qualify, each may receive 75 percent of the deceased child’s basic benefit. If one parent survives, the amount is slightly higher: 82.5 percent.
Disabled survivors
Special rules also apply to disabled survivors, who may be eligible for benefits at a younger age than widows in good health and without dependent children. Disabled widows and widowers may begin collecting survivor benefits as early as age 50, but such payments are reduced 28.5 percent from what they would be if the beneficiary waited until full retirement age to collect.
How benefits are earned
In order for family members to get survivor’s benefits, the deceased worker must have built up credits based on his or her working record. But the rules are somewhat different than for retirement benefits. The exact requirement depends on the age of the worker. For example, workers still in their early and mid-20s may gain survivor’s protections by earning just six credits — about one and a half years of work. A 40-year-old worker needs 18 credits — less than five years of work. For a 62-year-old, the requirement is 40 credits. Special rules allow workers with young children to qualify with only six credits (see the nearby sidebar “Getting a boost from Social Security even if you haven’t worked much” for more information).
Survivor’s coverage has the same dollar requirements for earning credits as retirement does: Workers can earn up to four credits, and the credit amount, which rises over time, was set at $1,410 in 2020.
GETTING A BOOST FROM SOCIAL SECURITY EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T WORKED MUCH
For most benefits, you need to achieve what the SSA calls fully insured status to gain full protection. But the SSA has a kind of safety net for children and parents raising children, which it calls currently insured status. This status allows you to earn certain benefits for family members even when you haven’t met the usual earnings requirements. You’re considered “currently insured” if you’ve attained at least six Social Security credits in a period of 3 years and 3 months (13 quarters), ending with death, disability, or retirement. Benefits are likely to be modest, and they’re restricted to children, as well as a spouse who is caring for a dependent child. Benefits under this status can’t go to a spouse without children or to a worker’s surviving parents.
Here’s an example: Levan hasn’t been a model breadwinner. But lately, the single father has started to hunker down, taking a job as a desk clerk in a resort hotel and bringing in steady money for the first time in his life. When he dies in a hang-gliding accident at age 33, Levan has built up seven work credits over the last two years. That wouldn’t normally be enough to gain a survivor’s benefit. But under Levan’s “currently insured status” with the SSA, his young son qualifies for a survivor’s benefit. Given his limited earnings history, however, the benefit is modest.
Paying Your Bills When You Can’t Work: Disability Benefits
Disability can be devastating to an individual or family’s finances. Social Security offers different benefits for disability. The benefits are complex, with sometimes-ambiguous rules for qualifying and many requirements that are distinct from other areas of Social Security.
This section offers an extremely brief overview of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Turn to Chapter 11 for a detailed examination of this important and complex area, including information on how the SSA defines disability and the medical evidence applicants need in order to make a claim.
www.dol.gov/owcp/dcmwc/regs/compliance/cm-6.pdf or go to www.dol.gov/owcp/dcmwc/.
Who qualifies
As in other Social Security protections, dependent family members of a disabled worker may also qualify for help if they meet certain requirements. Social Security disability benefits may go to
Disabled workers: To qualify, an individual must have built up the necessary number of credits, through covered work, and must meet a standard of having worked recently.
Spouses of disabled workers: To qualify, a disabled worker’s spouse must be caring for a child under 16 or a disabled child of any age, or be at least 62 years old.
Children of disabled workers: To qualify, a child must fall into one of the following categories:Under 18, unmarried, and attending school full timeUp to 19 years old and unmarried, if he or she is attending school full time but hasn’t yet graduated from high schoolAdult and disabled but younger than 22These standards also apply to stepchildren and possibly grandchildren.
How you qualify
Qualifying for SSDI isn’t easy. The SSA says that to get benefits, a person has to be completely disabled — unable to work — or suffering from a condition that may end in death. Disability benefits potentially continue until full retirement age, at which time they’re switched to retirement benefits.
How much you get
SSDI