You can collect your deceased husband’s Social Security if you remarry at age 60 or later. The remarriage has no effect on your survivor benefits, and you do not have to choose between the new marriage and the payments from his record. Remarry before 60, and you generally lose those survivor benefits for as long as the new marriage lasts.1Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
The Age 60 Rule
This is the rule that decides most cases. Remarry at 60 or older, and you keep eligibility for survivor benefits on your late husband’s earnings record.2Social Security Administration. Effect of Remarriage – Widow(er)’s Benefits It doesn’t matter whether you had already started collecting or were still planning to file. The new marriage does not reduce the payment either.
If your new spouse also receives Social Security, you may qualify for spousal benefits on their record after one year of marriage, once you’re at least 62.3Social Security. Benefits for Spouses You won’t collect both stacked together. The SSA pays whichever amount is higher.
If You Remarry Before 60
Remarrying before 60 generally ends your survivor benefits on your first husband’s record. A 55-year-old widow who remarries, for example, sees those payments stop.4Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
The loss is not always permanent. If the new marriage ends by death, divorce, or annulment, you can regain eligibility on your late husband’s record. Benefits can start as early as the month the later marriage ended, provided you still meet the other requirements for survivor benefits.2Social Security Administration. Effect of Remarriage – Widow(er)’s Benefits
The Age 50 Rule for Disabled Widows
If you have a qualifying disability, the protected age drops from 60 to 50. Remarry at 50 or later and the marriage does not affect your survivor benefits, as long as two things are true: the remarriage happens after you turn 50, and it happens after your disability began.2Social Security Administration. Effect of Remarriage – Widow(er)’s Benefits
Disabled surviving spouses can also begin collecting reduced survivor benefits as early as age 50 rather than waiting until 60.4Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
Mother’s and Father’s Benefits Work Differently
If you receive survivor benefits because you are caring for your late husband’s child who is under 16 or has a qualifying disability, the age 60 rule does not protect you. These payments are called mother’s or father’s benefits, and they generally end when you remarry, regardless of your age.5Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404-0341 – When Mother’s and Father’s Benefits Begin and End
There is one exception. Your benefits continue if you marry someone who is already receiving Social Security benefits themselves, such as retirement, disability, or another category of survivor benefits.5Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404-0341 – When Mother’s and Father’s Benefits Begin and End Your remarriage has no effect on the child’s own survivor benefits. Those continue on their own terms.
Divorced Before He Died?
You may still qualify for survivor benefits on a former husband’s record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce.6Social Security Administration. If You Had a Prior Marriage The remarriage rule is the same as for widows: remarry at 60 or later and you keep the benefits; remarry earlier and you lose them until the new marriage ends.
If he was married to someone else at the time of his death, that current spouse can also collect survivor benefits on his record. Payments to one surviving spouse do not reduce what’s available to the other.
Report the Remarriage
You must tell the SSA about your remarriage by the 10th day of the month after the wedding. A January wedding means reporting by February 10. Call 1-800-772-1213 and tell the representative about the change.7Social Security Administration. Communicate Changes to Personal Situation
Skipping this step can create an overpayment that the SSA will later require you to pay back. Reporting matters even when the remarriage does not affect your eligibility, because it keeps your record accurate.8Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Reporting Responsibilities
Your Own Benefit Versus the Survivor Benefit
If you qualify for retirement benefits on your own work record and for survivor benefits on your late husband’s, you can’t collect both totals added together. The SSA pays the higher of the two. But you don’t have to claim them at the same time, and this is where the remarriage question often meets a larger planning question.
Deemed filing, the rule that normally forces you to claim all benefits you’re eligible for at once, does not apply to survivor benefits.9Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits You can take survivor benefits as early as 60 and let your own retirement benefit keep growing until 70, when delayed retirement credits max it out. Then switch.
Take a 62-year-old widow who qualifies on both records. She can start survivor benefits now, leave her own untouched, and file for her own larger retirement benefit at 70. If her own benefit at 70 would beat the survivor amount, the sequence adds up over a lifetime. If the survivor benefit is the larger one, the math flips, and starting on her own record first may be the better order. The SSA can run the numbers on your specific record.
Survivor benefits themselves grow with the age you claim them. Filing at 60 pays 71.5% of what your husband would have received. Waiting to full retirement age for survivors, which is between 66 and 67 depending on your birth year, pays 100%.10Social Security Administration. What You Could Get From Survivor Benefits Full retirement age for survivor benefits is not identical to the one used for regular retirement, so check your birth year against the survivor schedule.1Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits