Social Security rules when widows remarry

During a recent speaking engagement in Florida, I met several financial advisers who had questions about widowed clients who are receiving Social Security survivor benefits. Many of those clients would like to remarry but worry they may lose their Social Security benefits if they do.

Abby, an adviser from Buffalo, New York, said one of her elderly clients is ashamed to be living with her partner, but says she can’t afford to give up the monthly survivor benefit she receives based on her late husband’s earnings record if she remarries.

Although that may have been the case once upon a time, the Social Security rules regarding survivor benefits were changed long ago. I told the adviser that there's now no reason that her client can’t remarry after age 60 and continue collecting survivor benefits even though she is married to someone else.

Originally, widows lost eligibility for survivor benefits if they remarried at any age. In 1965, a Miami newspaper reported that a large number of senior citizens were “living in sin” because legal marriage might deprive them of pensions or Social Security. That anecdotal evidence got the attention of lawmakers and supposedly led them to pass a law change in July 1965 that allowed widows to remarry after age 60.

The initial change allowed remarried widows to keep an amount equal to half of their deceased husband’s full retirement age amount, also known as the primary insurance amount, or PIA, according to a 2001 working paper from the Social Security Administration’s Office of Policy entitled “Widows Waiting to Wed?”

 A larger change in December 1977 allowed widows (but not surviving divorced spouses) to remarry after age 60 and still claim full widow’s benefits worth up to 100% of their deceased husband’s PIA.

[More: When can a widow collect her husband's social security?]

Survivor benefits are worth the maximum amount if the survivor claims them at her full retirement age or later. They don't continue to grow by 8% per year if the survivor postpones claiming beyond full retirement age up to age 70, the way retirement benefits do.

Survivor benefits are available as early as age 60 but they're worth just 71.5% of the deceased worker’s PIA if they're claimed at the earliest age. The later the widow claims survivor benefits, up to her full retirement age, the larger the amount she will receive. Survivor benefit options are explained at this SSA website.

The final rule change in January 1984 allowed surviving divorced spouses who had been married at least 10 years before divorcing to remarry after age 60 and still claim full survivor benefits. That rule allowed eligible divorced spouses to collect survivor benefits on an ex while married to someone else as long as they waited until age 60 or later to remarry. But remarriage nullified a divorced spouse’s right to collect spousal benefits on a living ex, unless that subsequent marriage ended in death, divorce or annulment.

Brian, an adviser from Pittsburgh, had a more personal question. His 94-year-old father plans to remarry a younger woman — age 82 — after they both lost their spouses in 2020. Brian’s dad is collecting his own Social Security retirement benefit and his bride-to-be is collecting survivor benefits on her late husband.

Brian asked whether the new wife could continue to collect her survivor benefit on her first husband while married to his father. Yes. If his father predeceases her, could she step up to his larger survivor benefit? Yes again.

Given the couple’s advanced ages, Brian also asked how long the couple would have to be married is order for her to collect survivor benefits if his dad died first.

To claim benefits as a survivor, a couple must be married at least nine months at the time of the first spouse’s death. If Brian’s dad dies before then, his new wife would not be eligible to claim survivor benefits on his earnings record, but she could continue to collect survivor benefits on her first husband.

Survivors can't claim benefits online. They must contact the Social Security Administration and make an appointment with the local field office. But expect a long wait. After being closed to the public for two years due to Covid, local Social Security offices are expected to reopen in April.