Q & A
My wife passed away 18 years ago and had worked 15 to 20 years. Can I collect survivor benefits? I am 63 and plan on working until 66. Her earnings were quite high during her career, so how does that affect my benefits?
Answer: Survivor benefits are available starting at age 60. Let me ignore for the moment the fact that you’re still working and assume that your age-70 retirement benefit exceeds your survivor benefit. If you start taking your survivor benefit immediately, it will be permanently reduced because you’ll be taking it before reaching full retirement age. Still, this is likely to be the best move if you were the higher earner. At 70, you should collect your own retirement benefit when it will start at its largest possible value. Social Security will pay you the larger of either your own retirement benefit or your survivor benefit, so at 70, your survivor benefit will disappear.
Now let’s add the fact that you are working. If you are earning enough to lose all your survivor benefits to the earnings test, which wipes out a portion of benefits for those still making a certain amount of money, you might as well wait until you reach January 1 of the year you’ll turn 66 to take your survivor benefit. The earnings test will apply in that year until the month you reach your 66th birthday. After you reach your 66th birthday, the earnings test ends.
On the other hand, if you have been a low earner, it may be best to take your own retirement benefit for the few months between January 1 of the year you reach 66 and your 66th birthday. Then, upon reaching full retirement age, you should start taking your survivor benefit, which I’m now assuming will exceed not just your full retirement benefit, but also your age-70 retirement benefit — the retirement benefit you’d collect if you first file at age 70 for a retirement benefit.
Source: http://www.pbs.org – Larry Kotlikoff, 11/7/2013
Notice: The links provided above connect readers to the full text of the posted question and its response. The URL (internet address) for these link are valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link’s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc. or socialsecurityreport.org.