Social Security Survivor Benefits: Who Qualifies and How Much

Yes. If your spouse worked long enough under Social Security, you can collect survivor benefits from 60, from 50 with a disability, or at any age while you care for your spouse's child under 16. You get 100% of your spouse's full benefit at your survivor full retirement age (66 to 67), 71.5% if you start at 60, and 75% while you care for a young child. Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 this week: survivor claims are taken by phone or at an office, and the funeral home has usually reported the death already.

If you are 60 or older, apply by the end of the month after the death. A widow or widower who applies by then can be paid from the month of death. Otherwise, under survivor full retirement age Social Security pays nothing for months before you apply; at that age or later, it pays up to 6 months back but never before that age, and a disabled widow's or widower's claim up to 12 months back. Spouse benefits you already get on your spouse's record switch to survivor benefits once the death is reported.

Who qualifies

You qualify as a surviving spouse when all three are true:

• You are 60 or older, or 50 to 59 with a disability.
• You were married at least 9 months before your spouse died, or an exception below applies.
• You are single now, or you remarried at 60 or older (50 or older if you were already disabled). After such a remarriage, from 62 you can take a benefit on your new spouse's record if it pays more.

Caring for your spouse's child under 16 or disabled who gets benefits on the record removes the age rule, and a child you share also removes the 9-month rule. A divorced spouse qualifies the same way after a marriage of at least 10 years, or at any age and after any marriage length while raising a child under 16 or disabled they had or adopted with the deceased.

Children qualify if they are unmarried and under 18, 18 or 19 and in school (K-12) full time, or any age with a disability that began before 22; when a child turning 18 is still in school, return Form SSA-1372 to keep the benefit. Parents 62 or older qualify if the child who died provided at least half of their support and they have not married since the death, with proof of support due within 2 years. The deceased needed enough work, never more than 10 years; 1 1/2 years in the 3 years before death covers the children and a spouse caring for them.

The 9-month marriage rule and its exceptions

The main exceptions: a child together or adopted during the marriage; being entitled to, or able to claim, benefits such as widow's or parent's benefits the month before the wedding; or, if your spouse was expected to live 9 months at the wedding, an accidental death (within 3 months of the injury, suicide excluded), a line-of-duty death on active military duty, or an earlier 9-month marriage to each other.

Widows and widowers 50 to 59 with a disability

Your disability must have started within 7 years after the death, or within 7 years after you last got benefits as a parent caring for a child or as a disabled widow or widower. Social Security applies the SSDI disability definition and a 5-month waiting period.

How much you get

The reduced share passes 75% at 61, 80% at 63 and 90% at 65. Survivor full retirement age is 66 if you were born 1945 through 1956 and rises gradually to 67 for anyone born in 1962 or later; the benefit stops growing at that age.

If your spouse started retirement early, your benefit is capped at the larger of what your spouse was getting or 82.5% of the full benefit: at survivor full retirement age you get that cap, and before it the lower of your age-reduced share and the cap. If your spouse waited past full retirement age, the delayed retirement credits carry over to you. All benefits on one record are capped at 150% to 180% of the full benefit; an ex-spouse's benefit sits outside that family maximum unless the ex-spouse is raising the deceased's child under 16 or disabled.

Social Security estimates the average widow or widower collecting alone at $2,005 a month in January 2027, after the 3.6% cost-of-living increase for 2027. A pension from work that paid no Social Security tax no longer cuts survivor benefits: the Social Security Fairness Act ended that reduction from January 2024 on.

The $255 lump-sum death payment

Social Security pays a one-time $255 to the spouse who lived with the deceased. A spouse who lived apart gets it if they qualify for monthly benefits on the record for the month of death; with no spouse, the children eligible in the month of death split it. File within 2 years, in the same call as your claim or on SSA's lump-sum death payment page.

The payment for the month your spouse died

Your spouse's benefit ends with the month before the month of death, and Social Security pays each month's benefit in the following month. If your spouse died in March, the April deposit is March's benefit and goes back, along with any later deposits. Ask the bank to return those deposits to Social Security, and return a paper check uncashed.

What to do today

1. Give the funeral director your spouse's Social Security number. With no funeral home involved, call 1-800-772-1213 with your spouse's name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death.
2. Call 1-800-772-1213 for a survivor benefits appointment. Lines are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (TTY 1-800-325-0778); call 8 to 10 a.m. local time or late in the day, Wednesday through Friday, later in the month. SSA's survivor apply page books the same phone appointment.
3. Protect your filing date. If the appointment falls next month, tell the agent now that you intend to file. Social Security uses that date as your filing date when it prevents a loss of benefits, and you have 6 months from its notice to finish.
4. Gather originals or certified copies:
   • proof of death, from the funeral home or a death certificate
   • your Social Security number and your spouse's
   • your birth certificate, and your marriage certificate or divorce papers
   • your children's Social Security numbers and birth certificates
   • your spouse's W-2s or self-employment tax return for the most recent year
   • your bank's name and account number
   Apply even if something is missing; the agent helps you get it.

Survivor benefit first, or your own retirement first

You receive the higher of your own retirement and your survivor benefit, and you can switch later. The switch depends on filing for one benefit at a time: an application covers every benefit you qualify for unless you tell Social Security to exclude one before it decides the claim.

• If your own retirement at 70 beats your survivor benefit: take survivor benefits as early as 60 and switch to your own retirement at 70. If you are 62 or older when you file, say you are not filing on your own record.
• If your survivor benefit at survivor full retirement age beats your own benefit at 70: take your own retirement as early as 62 and tell the agent to exclude survivor benefits from that application. File for survivor benefits at survivor full retirement age, when they reach their top amount: 100%, or the larger of what your spouse got and 82.5% if your spouse claimed early. Social Security then pays your own benefit plus the difference.
• If you already get your own retirement or disability benefit: file for survivor benefits anyway; you receive a combination equal to the higher amount.

Before full retirement age, Social Security withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480 in 2026 or $25,560 in 2027 ($1 for every $3 above $65,160 or $67,920 in the year you reach that age), measured by your retirement full retirement age even on survivor benefits; only your own payment shrinks.

What to say when you call

"My [husband/wife], [full name], Social Security number [number], died on [date]. I am applying for survivor benefits, the $255 lump-sum death payment and benefits for our children, [names]. Please record today as my filing date. I need my survivor benefit now and at survivor full retirement age, and my own retirement benefit at 62 and 70. If I file for one benefit now, I want to exclude [my own retirement / survivor] benefits from this application."

If your spouse was a veteran, check VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, the VA Survivors Pension and the VA burial allowance too.

Today, call 1-800-772-1213 and book your survivor benefits appointment. Next, Social Security sends a notice with its decision and your monthly amount. If it is wrong, ask in writing for reconsideration within 60 days after you receive it; our guide to starting a Social Security appeal shows how. Each payment arrives the month after the month it covers: a benefit that starts with October arrives in November.