{"id":59235,"date":"2024-03-13T13:40:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T17:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=59235"},"modified":"2024-03-13T13:40:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T17:40:34","slug":"how-do-survivor-benefits-work-for-a-married-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2024\/03\/how-do-survivor-benefits-work-for-a-married-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do Survivor Benefits Work for a Married Couple?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does Social Security handle the death of one spouse? Say, for example, the husband receives $2,000 per month in Social Security and his wife receives $1,000 per month. How is the death of either spouse handled? Signed: Concerned spouse<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Dear Concerned:<\/em><\/strong> Benefits to a deceased beneficiary stop as soon as Social Security (SS) is notified of the death (notification usually done by the funeral director who handles arrangements). Benefits are not paid for the month of death, only for the preceding month when the beneficiary was alive for the entire month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A surviving spouse is entitled to the higher of two benefits \u2013 their own personally earned SS retirement benefit, or an amount based on the deceased spouse\u2019s benefit at death. In the example you cite, and assuming the surviving spouse has reached full retirement age (FRA): if the husband dies first the wife will receive the husband\u2019s $2,000 monthly benefit instead of her previous $1,000 amount. But if the wife died first, the husband would continue receiving only his $2,000 monthly amount because that is more than his deceased wife was receiving. Note in either case, the surviving spouse would be entitled to a one-time lump sum \u201cdeath benefit\u201d of $255.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surviving spouse would need to contact Social Security to claim the \u201cdeath benefit\u201d and – unless the surviving spouse was previously receiving only a spousal benefit \u2013 also to claim the higher monthly amount, if eligible. If the surviving spouse was previously receiving only a spousal benefit from the deceased (and not entitled to SS retirement benefits on their own), then Social Security would automatically award their higher survivor amount when notified of the death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a surviving spouse has reached full retirement age (somewhere between 66 and 67 depending on year of birth) and is eligible for a survivor benefit, the amount of the survivor benefit will be 100% of the deceased spouse\u2019s benefit. But if the survivor claims the benefit before reaching FRA, the amount of the survivor benefit will be reduced (by 4.75% for each full year earlier). The survivor\u2019s benefit reaches maximum at the survivor\u2019s full retirement age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a surviving spouse has not yet reached their FRA, and if they are entitled to (not necessarily collecting) their own Social Security retirement benefit, the surviving spouse has the option to delay claiming the survivor benefit until it reaches maximum at their full retirement age. And if the survivor\u2019s personal SS retirement benefit will ever be more than their maximum survivor benefit, the surviving spouse also has the option to claim only the smaller survivor benefit first and allow their personal SS retirement benefit to grow (to maximum at age 70 if desired).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Social Security there is hardly ever a simple answer to a question but, in the example you use, if both are over their SS full retirement age:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If the husband dies first, the wife will get 100% of the amount ($2000) the husband was receiving, instead of the small amount ($1000) she was previously receiving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If the wife dies first, the husband\u2019s monthly benefit will remain at $2000, and he will get no increase in his monthly amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 In either case, the surviving spouse will be entitled to a one-time lump sum death benefit of $255.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does Social Security handle the death of one spouse? Say, for example, the husband receives $2,000 per month in Social Security and his wife receives $1,000 per month. How… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":55845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2661],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59236,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59235\/revisions\/59236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}