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Experts at Maximize My Social Security have answered more than 10,000 questions about Social Security over many years. Search for your questions and answers here.
September 7, 2017
Category:
Will I Be Able To Receive A Widow's Benefit?
My husband is 72 and has been drawing SS since he was 62. I am a teacher and will retire next year at 66. If he passes away will I be able to draw any of his SS as survivor's benefit or widow benefit?
Hi,
That depends. If you will be receiving a teacher's pension based on earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes, then any widow's benefits for which you would otherwise be eligible would be subject to an offset of 2/3rds of the amount of your teacher's pension. In that case, in other words, you would only receive widow's benefits if your widow's rate exceeds 2/3rds of the amount of your teacher's pension. This is due to Social Security's Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision, which also has the same effect on spousal benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).
Best, Jerry