Your February payment should arrive on a specific schedule based on either your birth date or your late husband's birth date (whichever the claim is based on). The payment schedule for 2025 is: - Birth dates 1st-10th: Second Wednesday of month - Birth dates 11th-20th: Third Wednesday of month - Birth dates 21st-31st: Fourth Wednesday of month If benefits started before May 1997, payment comes on the 3rd of the month. Mark your calendar for the appropriate Wednesday in February to expect your full survivor benefit payment.

One more thing about survivor benefits nobody told me - they're taxable if your combined income exceeds certain thresholds. For 2025, if you file as an individual and your combined income is between $25,000 and $34,000, up to 50% of your benefits may be taxable. Above $34,000, up to 85% may be taxable. Caught me by surprise at tax time!

Remember that any changes to the WEP formula would be based on your years of substantial earnings under Social Security. If you have 30+ years of substantial earnings, WEP doesn't apply at all. If you have 21-29 years, the WEP reduction is lessened. Might be worth checking if you're close to one of those thresholds. You can request your earnings record from SSA to verify your years of coverage.

anybody know what the fairness act actually says? will it be retroactive? my mom already retired 2 years ago and got screwed by wep

Update: I went with my mother-in-law to the funeral home today and got 10 copies of the death certificate. We've scheduled an appointment with SSA for next week. They told us she should bring her ID, both their Social Security cards, marriage certificate, death certificate, and a recent bank statement. I'm going to go with her to make sure everything gets handled correctly. Thank you all for your advice - it's been incredibly helpful during this difficult time.

my friend said when her mom died the dad got a letter automatic like 2 weeks later and didnt have to do nothing. is that different for husbands vs wives or something?

One additional point regarding your situation: while those zero years won't be replaced with your ex-spouse's earnings, there is a "caregiver credit" proposal that's been discussed in Congress for several years. It would provide earnings credits for people who leave the workforce to care for children or elderly family members. It hasn't passed yet, but if you're interested in advocacy on this issue, organizations like the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare are working on it. In the meantime, maximize your earnings for the remaining years of your career to replace as many zero years as possible in your benefit calculation.

Just to add to what others have said - when calculating your benefit, Social Security uses your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. The 'indexed' part is important because it adjusts your past earnings to account for wage inflation over time. So while those 10 years do count as zeros, if you're working now, even part-time jobs could potentially replace some of those zeros in your calculation. Also, when you apply for benefits, SSA will automatically calculate whether a spousal benefit based on your current husband's record would give you a higher monthly payment than your own record. You'll receive whichever is higher - they do this calculation automatically.

Thanks everyone for the helpful feedback. Based on the calculations shared, we've decided it's not worth amending the returns since the break-even point would be around 25+ years. I appreciate all the insights!

One important thing to consider: there's a 3-year, 3-month, and 15-day time limit for correcting Social Security earnings records. For earnings from 2015-2016, you're already beyond this window. However, SSA can make exceptions for "good cause" which includes situations where income was properly reported to IRS but not to SSA. You'd need to file Form SSA-7008 (Request for Correction of Earnings Record) along with proof of income and an explanation. Also, to be very technical, the benefit formula takes your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. The indexing factor adjusts earlier years' earnings upward significantly. So two recent years at $87k each might not actually replace years that, although lower in nominal terms, might be higher after indexing. If you want an exact calculation, you can request a detailed earnings analysis through an in-person appointment at your local SSA office.