Question: I will be 57 this August. My husband of 28 years who is considerably older, started taking his Social Security benefits at 62. We have two children, a 26-year-old autistic son who is cared for in a group home, and a 15-year-old daughter who is a high school sophomore. Our son is currently receiving SSA and SSI benefits. Our daughter and I are also receiving SSA benefits based on my husband’s earnings. All three of our benefits are currently capped at the family maximum.
I worked for several years before I got married, but have not accumulated enough credits to be eligible for benefits under my own earnings. If my husband should pass away, I would like to know what benefits I will be eligible for and at what age and amount. What benefits will our children be eligible for after my husband’s death? What will my children be entitled to when I pass away based on my earnings before or after my husband’s death?
Answer: Your son will continue receiving his current disabled child benefit from Social Security until your husband dies. At this point, the family benefit maximum won’t change, but your deceased husband’s retirement benefit won’t be charged against the maximum. So there will be more maximum family benefits available to be shared by you, your son and your daughter (if, when your husband dies, she is still under 18, or under 19 and still in high school or elementary school).
Your family benefit maximum is somewhere between 150 percent and 187 percent of your husband’s primary insurance amount. When your husband dies, that won’t change. But the 100 percent of this maximum that’s allocated to him (even though he’s not actually receiving his full primary insurance amount because he took his retirement benefit early) will go away when he dies, leaving you and the kids to collect, just among yourselves, up to 150 to 187 percent of his PIA.
If he dies after your daughter is no longer eligible for a child benefit, your disabled son’s child survivor benefit will rise from 50 percent to 75 percent of your deceased husband’s PIA. Your own benefit will become not a widow’s benefit, but a mother’s benefit because you will have a child in care receiving a child survivor benefit. Your mother’s benefit will also equal 75 percent of your husband’s PIA.
Now, 75 percent plus 75 percent of your husband’s PIA totals 150 percent of his PIA. So you and your son will get your full benefits and not be hit by the family benefit maximum.
However, here are a couple of extra points. In order for you to continue receiving young spousal benefits (i.e. before age 62) and/or mother’s benefits after your daughter reaches age 16, your disabled son must be considered ‘in your care.’ The ‘in care’ requirements vary with the circumstances, but since your son is living in a group home, you would need to establish that you are exercising parental control and responsibility for him. That’s likely the case, but it’s not a given. Here is the SSA reference.
Also, at some point, it will be advantageous for you to convert to your widow’s benefits, assuming that your husband dies first. Since the special RIB LIM formula would enter (see my prior column on this), your maximum possible benefit will be 82.5 percent of your husband’s PIA. This would be the case if you become eligible for such benefits any time after reaching approximately age 62 and a half. That could potentially bring the family maximum into play, but probably would not.
Finally, neither you nor your children will receive any benefit from your account, since you are not insured.
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