Ask Larry

I understand that a widowed spouse (in my case, the wife, age 61) can file a restricted application to only collect her widow benefits and allow her own benefits to grow. However, because her benefits are considerably lower than he deceased husband's benefits, she wants to know if she can restrict her application to just her benefits and then at her FRA switch to her unreduced husband's benefits (which will be his amount when he passed away). Thank-you.

Hi,

Yes, at least in essence, although the widow couldn't draw her own benefits until she's at least age 62 unless she qualifies for disability benefits. Widow's technically can't 'switch' from drawing their own benefits to just drawing widow's benefits, though. Instead, when a widow is already drawing her own benefits and later applies for a higher widow's benefit they're paid a partial widow's benefit in addition to their own benefit. The total benefit amount would then add up to the higher widow's rate.

If the deceased worker drew reduced retirement benefits prior to his death, though, then that reduction would carry over to the calculation of the widow's rate. In that case, it would almost certainly be advantageous for the widow to file for her widow's benefit at some point prior to her full retirement age (FRA). Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) is programmed to handle these types of calculations so that widow(er)'s can determine their optimal strategy for claiming their benefits.

Best, Jerry