Dear Rusty: How does Social Security handle the passing of one spouse? For example, if the husband gets $2,000 a month from Social Security and his wife gets $1,000 a month, what happens when one of them dies?
Signed: Concerned spouse
Dear Concerned: When a beneficiary dies, Social Security stops their benefits and doesn't pay for the month of death, only for the previous month when the beneficiary was alive for the whole month.
The surviving spouse gets either their own earned SS retirement benefit or an amount based on the deceased spouse’s benefit at death.
In your example, if the husband dies first, the wife will receive $2,000 monthly instead of her previous $1,000. If the wife dies first, the husband will continue to receive only his $2,000 because it's more than what she was getting. In both cases, the surviving spouse would also get a one-time lump sum “death benefit” of $255.
The surviving spouse must contact Social Security to claim the “death benefit” and also to claim the higher monthly amount, if eligible, unless they were previously receiving only a spousal benefit.
If the surviving spouse was previously receiving only a spousal benefit and not entitled to SS retirement benefits on their own, Social Security would automatically award their higher survivor amount when notified of the death.
If a surviving spouse has reached full retirement age and is eligible for a survivor benefit, the amount will be 100% of the deceased spouse’s benefit.
If the survivor claims the benefit before reaching FRA, the amount will be reduced and reaches maximum at full retirement age.
If the surviving spouse has not yet reached their FRA and is entitled to their own Social Security retirement benefit, they can delay claiming the survivor benefit until it reaches maximum at their full retirement age.
If the survivor’s personal SS retirement benefit will ever be more than their maximum survivor benefit, they can claim only the smaller survivor benefit first and allow their personal SS retirement benefit to grow to maximum at age 70.
With Social Security, there's hardly ever a simple answer to a question, but, in your example, if both are over their SS full retirement age:
• If the husband dies first, the wife will get 100% of the amount ($2,000) the husband was receiving, instead of the small amount ($1,000) she was previously receiving.
• If the wife passes away first, the husband's monthly payment will stay at $2,000, and he will not receive any increase in his monthly amount.
• In any situation, the spouse left behind will receive a one-time payment of $255 as a death benefit.
Russell Gloor is an approved Social Security consultant by the Association of Mature American Citizens: https://amac.us/social-security-advisor.
