Social Security survival benefits
Can a spouse collect a deceased spouse’s partial social security ,without filing for social security themselve ? If so at what age and for how long ?
Thanks
Terry Says
You’ll find all your answers here at the SS website: https://www.ssa.gov/survivor
Basically, you can collect at age 60, if you were married at least 9 months before your spouse died.
BUT if you collect at age 60, benefits are substantially reduced to only 71.5% of your spouse’s benefit. If you wait until your own full retirement age, you get 100% of your deceased spouse’s benefit. In between, it’s a sliding scale.
You’ll find details at that link.
