Social Security pays a month behind, so the check received in the month of death is payable. You wouldn’t have to give it back. Notify the Social Security Administration as quickly as possible upon the death of a spouse, if that spouse is drawing Social Security...
If you are disabled, you can begin drawing reduced survivor benefits as early as age fifty. You are eligible for survivor benefits prior to age sixty if you are caring for a child of your deceased spouse who is younger than sixteen, or if you are taking care of a...
Children below age eighteen can draw survivor benefits, and teens eighteen years old and still in high school can also draw survivor benefits. If a child was disabled prior to turning age twenty-two, he or she is eligible for survivor benefits. The benefit amount is...
Many people don’t even consider that option because they don’t know about it. If your current retirement benefits are less than your survivor benefits, you would switch to survivor benefits.
You can have been married and divorced multiple times. You can’t be currently married prior to age sixty and collect survivor benefits on your deceased spouse or spouses. If you divorced your deceased spouse, got remarried, and then your second spouse died, you’d draw...
Many people make the mistake of dismissing survivor benefits, especially if the spouse died a long time ago and never earned much money. It’s worth noting that the benefit amounts will have continued to grow after death because of cost-of-living adjustments made to...
