If your spouse dies, you can get their Social Security. A surviving spouse is generally entitled to monthly survivor benefits worth between 71% and 100% of what the deceased worker was receiving or would have received at full retirement age. The exact percentage depends on how old you are when you claim, whether you’re caring for the worker’s young or disabled child, and whether the worker delayed their own retirement past full retirement age.
When You Can Start Collecting
A surviving spouse can claim reduced survivor benefits as early as age 60, or as early as age 50 if you have a qualifying disability. You must have been married to the deceased for at least nine months before their death, and you must not have remarried before age 60 (or age 50 if disabled).1Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
Both the age floor and the marriage-length rule are waived if you’re caring for the deceased worker’s child who is under 16 or who has a disability and is receiving Social Security benefits. In that case you can collect at any age, no matter how long the marriage lasted.2Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
Divorced from the person who died? You can still qualify on their record if the marriage lasted at least ten years. The same age rules and non-remarriage rules apply, and your claim doesn’t reduce anything paid to a current spouse or other family members.1Social Security Administration. Who Can Get Survivor Benefits
How Much You’ll Get
Survivor benefits are calculated as a percentage of the deceased worker’s primary insurance amount, which is the monthly benefit they would have received at full retirement age.3Social Security Administration. Primary Insurance Amount For a surviving spouse, the standard percentages are:
- At your full retirement age or older: 100% of the worker’s benefit.
- Between age 60 and full retirement age: 71% to 99%, rising the longer you wait.
- At any age while caring for the worker’s child under 16: 75%.
These percentages come from the SSA’s standard survivor benefit rules.2Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits Each of the worker’s eligible children can also receive 75%, and a dependent parent age 62 or older may qualify as well.
Your full retirement age for survivor benefits falls somewhere between 66 and 67, depending on your birth year, and it is not always the same as the full retirement age used for your own retirement benefits.4Social Security Administration. See Your Full Retirement Age for Survivor Benefits Claiming earlier permanently reduces your monthly payment.
If Your Spouse Delayed Their Own Retirement
If the deceased worker put off claiming their own retirement benefits past full retirement age, they earned delayed retirement credits that boosted the benefit amount. Those credits carry over to you as the surviving spouse, so your 100% benefit reflects the higher, credit-enhanced figure.5Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 404-0313 – What Are Delayed Retirement Credits and How Do They Increase My Old-Age Benefit Amount
The Family Maximum
Total benefits paid on a single worker’s record are capped somewhere between 150% and 180% of the worker’s PIA. If several family members claim on the same record and the combined benefits exceed that cap, each person’s payment is reduced proportionally. As a surviving spouse claiming alone, this limit doesn’t affect you.6Social Security Administration. Benefits for Children
The Switching Strategy Worth Knowing About
Survivor benefits work differently from spousal benefits in one important way: the “deemed filing” rule doesn’t apply. You can start one benefit while letting the other keep growing.
A common approach: a 62-year-old surviving spouse starts collecting reduced survivor benefits, leaves their own retirement benefit untouched, and switches to their own benefit at age 70 if it has grown larger. The SSA uses this exact scenario in its own claiming guidance.7Social Security Administration. Filing Rules for Retirement and Spouses Benefits
The reverse works too. If your own retirement benefit at 62 is modest but your survivor benefit at full retirement age would be much larger, you can start your own reduced retirement early and switch to the full survivor benefit at your survivor FRA. Either way, you eventually receive whichever benefit is higher. Talk to the SSA before deciding, because the order matters.
What Can Reduce or Stop Your Benefit
Remarriage
Remarrying before age 60 (or 50 if disabled) disqualifies you from collecting survivor benefits on your late spouse’s record. Remarry at 60 or later and you keep your eligibility, and you can choose between survivor benefits on your late spouse’s record or spousal benefits on the new spouse’s record, whichever pays more.8Social Security Matters. Will Remarrying Affect My Social Security Benefits
Working Before Full Retirement Age
You can work while collecting survivor benefits, but if you haven’t reached full retirement age, earnings above certain limits trigger a temporary reduction. For 2026:
- Under full retirement age all year: the SSA withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480.
- Reaching full retirement age during 2026: the SSA withholds $1 for every $3 you earn above $65,160, counting only earnings before the month you hit FRA.
Once you reach full retirement age, the earnings test disappears entirely. Benefits withheld earlier aren’t lost; the SSA recalculates your monthly amount at FRA to credit back the withheld months.9Social Security Administration. How Work Affects Your Benefits
The $255 Lump-Sum Death Payment
On top of monthly benefits, a one-time $255 payment may go to the surviving spouse. If there is no surviving spouse, eligible children may receive it instead. You must apply within two years of the worker’s death, or the payment is forfeited.10Social Security Administration. Lump-Sum Death Payment
How to Apply
You cannot apply for survivor benefits online. Call the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or visit a local Social Security office. Scheduling an appointment first will save you time. If a funeral home is handling arrangements, giving them the deceased’s Social Security number lets them report the death to the SSA for you.11Social Security Administration. Form SSA-10 – Information You Need to Apply for Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Divorced Spouse’s Benefits
Documents to gather before you apply:
- The deceased worker’s Social Security number and proof of death
- Your own Social Security number and birth certificate
- Your marriage certificate, or final divorce decree if applying as a surviving divorced spouse
- The deceased worker’s W-2 forms or self-employment tax returns for the most recent year
- Proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status if you were not born in the United States
- Bank account details for direct deposit
Don’t hold off filing because you’re missing something. The SSA will help you fill in gaps.2Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
Why Filing Quickly Matters
Retroactive payments have hard limits. If you’re at or past full retirement age when you apply, the SSA can pay up to six months of back benefits. Surviving spouses filing for reduced benefits, and disabled widows and widowers, may qualify for up to 12 months of retroactivity.12SSA – POMS. Retroactivity for Title II Benefits Every month you wait beyond those windows is a month of benefits you don’t get back.
Taxes on What You Receive
Survivor benefits are taxed the same as any other Social Security income. Whether you owe federal tax depends on your combined income, which is adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits:
- Single filers between $25,000 and $34,000: up to 50% of benefits may be taxable.
- Single filers above $34,000: up to 85% may be taxable.
- Married filing jointly between $32,000 and $44,000: up to 50% may be taxable.
- Married filing jointly above $44,000: up to 85% may be taxable.
Below these thresholds your benefits aren’t taxed. About 40% of Social Security recipients owe some federal tax on their benefits.13Social Security Administration. What You Need to Know When You Get Retirement or Survivors Benefits