One practical suggestion: Have your mother request an appointment with a Technical Expert at her local Social Security office, not just a regular claims representative. Technical Experts have more advanced training on these complex benefit calculation scenarios and can provide detailed explanations of how her specific benefit was calculated. Make sure she brings documentation of your father's disability approval, death certificate, and any correspondence about benefits. Ask specifically for a written explanation of how her survivor benefit was calculated and have them document any questions about alternative calculations in her file. If she believes there's been a mistake, she can request a reconsideration, but be aware these are rarely successful without clear evidence of a calculation error.

Just want to add my two cents that whatever amount they calculate, your mom should double-check it. When I got survivor benefits they miscalculated the first time and it was almost $300 less than it should have been! I had to fight with them for 3 months to get it fixed and get backpay.

my sister told me the secret is to be super careful with the trial work period to make sure you dont use them all up at once. use maybe 1 month here and there if you can so they dont all get used up together and then your not stuck without a safety net

To answer your question about my transition - yes, I did have a couple of payment gaps around month 10-11 after my TWP ended. I earned above SGA for those months, so my benefits were supposed to stop, but then I had a medical setback and my earnings dropped below SGA the following month. SSA was supposed to automatically reinstate my benefits for that month, but I had to make multiple calls to get it resolved. This is where documentation saved me - I had proof of my earnings drop and proof that I'd reported it. Eventually I did fully transition off SSDI, but knowing I had that 36-month safety net of the Extended Period of Eligibility made it much less scary to try. Best decision I ever made, but I wouldn't have done it without understanding all the protections available.

Thank you all for the helpful information! I just wanted to provide an update - I called SSA again and specifically asked about the "grace year" rule. The new representative confirmed what you all said - only my November and December earnings matter for 2025, and since I earned less than $1,850 in each of those months, I won't have any benefits withheld. She apologized for the confusion from my previous call. Such a relief! I appreciate this community so much.

Just to add my two cents - I know several people who've dealt with earnings limit issues and it's almost always better to proactively contact SSA if you think you might exceed the limit rather than waiting for them to catch it later. If they determine there's an overpayment after the fact, it can be much more stressful to deal with.

My friend tried to do this but found out her ex had barely worked under social security because he was a teacher with a pension. She ended up getting almost nothing from his record. Do you know if your ex worked consistently under Social Security?

One final tip - when you do file, make sure to specifically tell SSA you want to file for divorced spouse benefits. Sometimes they don't check automatically even though they should. Bring your marriage certificate and divorce decree to your appointment. You might also need his Social Security number, but if you don't have it, SSA can usually find it with his name and date of birth.

Given what you've said - he's 67, has memory issues, is unemployed, and you need the money - I think he should file right now. Here's my reasoning: 1. You're struggling financially - $2,200/month would help immediately 2. The memory issues create risk for a more complicated application later 3. He's already at FRA so there's no penalty for filing now 4. Your SSDI plus his retirement would give you about $3,950/month combined While waiting until 70 would give him an extra $528/month, that's 36 months of not receiving $2,200/month - that's $79,200 you'd be missing out on in the short term. You'd need to live over 12 years beyond age 70 just to break even on that decision.

To answer your question about survivor benefits: If your husband passes away, you would receive the higher of the two benefits, not both. So you would stop receiving your SSDI and instead receive his Social Security retirement benefit as a survivor benefit. This is why his benefit amount matters for your long-term financial security as well. Given your current financial situation and his cognitive challenges, filing now seems most prudent. The immediate financial relief outweighs the potential long-term gain, especially considering the administrative challenges you might face if his condition worsens.