Are you a widow and collecting Social Security benefits? If this is the case from an audit conducted in February of 2018, it was found that most widow benefits have been underpaid by the Social Security Administration. This is in addition to other errors uncovered in the same audit. It was found that widows who were eligible for retirement and survivor benefits, 82% were found to have been underpaid.
If you are a widow and not at full retirement age, it may be wise to file for the survivor benefits from your spouse and leave your retirement Social Security alone as long as you can. If your retirement age is 67 and you defer until age 70 to claim your retirement benefits, they will increase at a rate of 8% a year. Then at age 70, you should switch from your survivor benefits to your retirement benefits to collect the higher amount.
So why do people file for both retirement and survivor benefits at the same time? Simple, employees of the Social Security Administration are to explain the benefits of both options to you when you elect to receive one or the other form of payment. They must provide you with enough information that will allow you to make a well-informed decision on which benefit you decide to have paid at that time. The Social Security Administration must discuss these options with you and document why any unfavorable filing was made after the benefits have been explained to the recipient. If someone is eligible for both benefits the Social Security Administration must explain and document what they discussed with the recipient and this is not happening as a rule.
And the wrong decision can cost someone thousands of dollars over the remaining portion of their lives. As an example, a widow goes to the Social Security Administration and is informed that they are eligible for a monthly retirement benefit of $1,800 a month. They also could claim survivor benefits of $2,000 a month meaning if they were not informed of the difference it would cost them $200 a month for the rest of their lives. And if the recipient were 67 and their retirement benefit was $1,800 it would grow to $2,232 at age 70 meaning they would collect the $2,000 a month for three years and then at age 70 start collecting $2,232 or $232 more a month for the rest of their lives. Just by delaying their retirement benefit and accepting the survivor benefit for three years. These figures are for example purposes only and do not consider Cost of Living Allowances.
Let us face it when people who have lost a loved one go to the Social Security Administration to seek guidance on how to properly claim their benefits they are most likely grieving the loss of their loved one. And the Social Security Administration is not doing its job by explaining the differences in these benefits and the consequences of selecting the wrong one right from the start of the process. While you can only collect one benefit, selecting the proper one at the right time is crucial for many people as they rely heavily on their Social Security benefits to survive in retirement.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me for further details or make an appointment with the Social Security Administration to properly go over all of your options with regards to your benefits.
