SOCIAL INSURANCE · 5 MIN READ

Survivor, Spousal, and Dependent Benefits

Social Security pays benefits not only to workers but to their spouses, ex-spouses, widows and widowers, children, and even dependent parents — all calculated as percentages of the worker's Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). A spouse at full retirement age receives up to 50% of the worker's PIA, and generally must have been married to the worker at least one year. A divorced spouse can claim the same 50% if the marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce became final; uniquely, the divorced spouse can be paid even if the ex has not yet filed, provided the divorce has been final at least 2 years and the ex is at least 62. Remarriage generally ends divorced-spouse entitlement. Survivor benefits are richer. A widow or widower can claim as early as age 60 (age 50 if disabled); claiming at 60 locks in the maximum reduction, paying 71.5% of the deceased's PIA, while waiting until FRA pays 100%. Each eligible child receives 75% of the deceased worker's PIA, generally until age 18, extended to 19 only for full-time elementary or secondary students — college does not extend it. A surviving spouse of any age caring for the worker's child under 16 gets the mother's/father's benefit. A Disabled Adult Child (DAC) — an unmarried child whose disability began before age 22 — can collect on a parent's record for life: 50% of a living retired or disabled parent's PIA, 75% if the parent is deceased, and Medicare after 24 months of DAC entitlement. There is also a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255, payable first to a spouse who was living with the worker, otherwise to an entitled child; application must be made within 2 years of death. All benefits paid on one worker's record are capped by the family maximum — roughly 150% to 180% of PIA under a bend-point formula. When dependents' combined benefits would exceed the cap, each dependent's check is reduced proportionally, but the worker's own benefit is never reduced.