Before we start, let's recap the acronyms you'll see with regard to Social Security benefits:  

• Primary Insurance Amount (PIA): The benefit amount your spouse would have received at his normal retirement age.

• Full Retirement Age (FRA): The age when you are entitled to 100 percent of your Social Security retirement or widow survivor benefits.  

• Social Security Administration (SSA)

Widow Survivor Benefit

If you’re a widow age 60 or older, you can apply to receive a Social Security widow survivor benefit based on your spouse’s Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) or what he would have received at Full Retirement Age (FRA).

You can claim a widow survivor benefit as early as age 60, unlike retirement benefits where the minimum age to collect is 62. Your age and whether you earn an income will determine how much of a widow survivor benefit you receive.

What happens if you remarry?

If you remarry before age 60 you forfeit any claim to a widow survivor benefit. However, you can remarry after age 60 with no penalty.

You must remain unmarried to claim a widow survivor benefit. But you can claim survivor benefits and remarry after age 60 with no disruption in benefits.

How age and income determine your benefit

If you work, are younger than your FRA, and want to claim a widow survivor benefit, the SSA may reduce your survivor benefit if your earnings exceed a certain limit. The document How Work Affects Your Benefits describes how the SSA will deduct $1 from your benefits for each $2 you earn above the earnings limit for the year.

Even if you don't work, receiving a widow survivor benefit prior to your FRA will result in a reduced benefit because you will be receiving benefits for a longer period.

See this chart to determine your FRA.

Survivor benefits that start at age 60 are always reduced by 28.5 percent. You’ll be receiving benefits for a longer period because you’re claiming before your FRA. The advantage of a widow survivor’s benefit is that you can claim it earlier than a retirement benefit.

But the disadvantage of claiming early is the benefit reduction. 

The decision to claim or not claim early is an individual decision based on your current financial situation. Is it always better to take a survivor benefit right at age 60?

Not necessarily.

Maybe you want to take a reduced retirement benefit first and let the widow survivor benefit grow or vice versa.

To study your options a little closer, let’s look at an example of a fictional widow survivor benefit and a comparison of survivor vs. retirement benefits.

Example of a widow survivor benefit if you don’t have retirement benefits

Let’s say you’re a 60-year-old widow with no retirement benefits (you didn’t work or pay into Social Security) who applies for a widow survivor benefit.

Let’s also say your spouse’s PIA at his FRA would have been $2,000/month, so this is the number the SSA would use in its benefit calculation.

Remember, your widow survivor benefit is reduced by 28.5 percent if you claim before your own FRA.

So, if you claim a widow survivor benefit at age 60, you’ll only receive 71.5 percent of your spouse’s PIA or in this example, $1,430.

However, the widow survivor benefit amount increases each year you delay claiming until you reach your FRA at which time you’ll receive the full benefit amount because incremental increases for survivor benefits stop at your FRA.

In other words, if you waited to claim your widow survivor benefit until your FRA for example, you would receive $2,000.

See the table on the Benefits Planner: Survivors | Receiving Survivor Benefits Early for more examples of benefit amounts based on birth year.

Comparing widow survivor and your own retirement benefits

But what if you have your own retirement benefit? What if you worked and paid into the Social Security system?

Well, here’s where it gets interesting…

You can claim a reduced widow survivor benefit at age 60 and let your own retirement benefit continue to grow. Your retirement benefit grows incrementally each year until age 70, when incremental increases stop.

If you wait until age 70 to collect your own retirement benefit, your monthly benefit amount could increase by 132%! That means, at age 70, you could switch from your reduced widow survivor benefit to your own retirement benefit if it’s higher.

So, let’s say you’re a 60-year-old widow with her own retirement benefit. You need to decide whether to apply for a widow survivor benefit or your own retirement benefit first.

Now remember in our previous example, your spouse’s PIA at his FRA would have been $2,000/month, so this is the number the SSA would use in your widow survivor benefit calculation.

However, let’s also say that your retirement benefit at your FRA is $1,500.

Which benefit should you take first?

In this example, you could claim a reduced widow survivor benefit of $1,430 at age 60 and then switch to your own retirement benefit of $1,980 at age 70 when it’s at its highest and no more incremental increases will apply.

Or you could wait until age 62 to take a reduced retirement benefit of $1,125 and switch to your widow survivor benefit of $2,000 at age 67 when it’s at its highest and no more incremental increases will apply.

Use the Social Security survivor benefit worksheet in the Social Security Numbers You Need to Know module to track your important benefit numbers.

Recap

• You must remain unmarried to claim a widow survivor benefit at age 60.

• However, you can claim a widow survivor benefit and remarry after age 60 with no disruption in benefits.

• You can work and claim a widow survivor benefit at age 60, but your benefit will be reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above $18,240.

• If you claim a widow survivor benefit at age 60, the SSA will reduce your benefit by 28.5% because you’re claiming before your FRA.

• Your widow survivor benefit amount increases each year you delay claiming until you reach your FRA at which time you’ll receive the full benefit amount.

• Widow survivor benefit incremental increases stop at your FRA.

• You can claim a widow survivor benefit first and switch to your own retirement benefit later if it’s higher