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Widow's
Benefits
Explained
By BRUCE A. HUNDLEY
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
“Will my husband’s benefits be reduced if I begin drawing benefits on his Social Security record when I become 62?” asks a caller to the Social Security office. The answer: her husband’s beneift will not be affected in any way when she begins drawing benefits.
The amount of the wife’s benefit will, however, be reduced if she begins taking benefits before reaching age 65. A wife taking benefits at age 62 receives 37.5 percent of her husband’s benefits. If she waits until she’s 65, she will receive 50 percent of fier husband’s benefit.
Should the husband die, the wife’s benefits will be changed to widow’s benefits. The benefit amount will be based primarily on the wife’s age at the time her husband died. For example, generally a widow who is age 65 or older would received 100 percent of her deceased husband’s benefit. The fact that she might have taken a reduced wife’s benefit does not affect the amount of her widow’s benefit.
Benefits that are reduced because the spouse or surviving spouse took a benefit befdre age 65 will-remain reduced.
Because the caller was a woman, I have been referring to wife’s and widow’s benefits. But the same rules apply to men who are eligible for husband’s and widower’s benefits on.< their wife’s Social Security record.
(Editor’s note: Bruce Hundley is the manager of the Social Security *3office in Culpeper, which serves Rappahannock County residents.)
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