Question: If my spouse collects a certain amount of Social Security and he passes away, how much of it would the spouse receive even if she is on Social Security?
Answer: If your husband were to pass away, you would receive the larger of either your survivor or your own retirement benefit because you have already filed for your own retirement benefit. If your survivor benefit exceeds your own retirement benefit, the difference or excess will be paid to you. This is true even if you are between full retirement age and age 70 and have suspended your retirement benefit. Once you file for your own retirement benefit, you are eligible for an excess spousal benefit (when your husband is alive) or an excess survivor benefit (after he passes away). In addition to having your survivor benefit zapped in this manner, it may also be reduced if you take it before your full retirement age.
The amount of the survivor benefit will determine your excess survivor benefit. The survivor benefit will be your husband’s current retirement benefit if he filed for his retirement benefit after reaching full retirement. If he filed for his retirement benefit before full retirement age, your survivor benefit will be the larger of the reduced retirement benefit he was receiving or 82.5 percent of his full retirement benefit. This assumes you aren’t taking your survivor benefit early.
If he took his own retirement benefits early and you are taking your survivor benefit early, the calculation of your survivor benefit gets even more complicated. Social Security orders, from lowest to highest, three benefits. The first is your reduced survivor benefit, calculated assuming that your husband, counterfactually, collected his retirement benefit at full retirement age. The second benefit is 82.5 percent of his full retirement benefit, and the third, is the actual retirement benefit he was receiving when he passed away.
Which of these benefits is then used as your survivor benefit for subsequent transformation into an excess spousal benefit that is then subjected to a early survivor benefit reduction (because you are, I’m now assuming, taking your widow’s benefit early) will depend on the precise low-to-high ordering of the three benefits. And depending on the ordering, either the lowest or middle benefit will be used. For more specifics, take a gander at this nifty chart.
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