Can I claim Social Security survivor benefits from both ex-husbands? Taking benefits at 65 vs. FRA question

You can only receive survivor benefits based on one person's work record at a time. In your situation, you would want to choose whichever ex-husband's benefit would give you the highest amount. The Social Security Administration will help determine which is higher when you apply. You're correct about the percentage at your current age - filing for survivor benefits at 65 would give you approximately 91.9% of the full survivor benefit amount. Regarding work: for 2025, if you're under FRA and working, $1 in benefits will be withheld for every $2 you earn above $22,680 (this amount changes yearly with COLA). Once you reach FRA, there's no earnings test. Your strategy of taking survivor benefits and then switching to your own retirement at 70 is smart if your own benefit will be higher at that point. Each year you delay your own benefit past FRA, it increases by 8% until age 70.

For survivor benefits, you need to have been married for at least 9 months at the time of death, unless death was accidental or occurred in the line of duty in certain military service. Since you divorced your second husband before his death, you wouldn't be eligible for survivor benefits on his record. The rule for divorced spouse survivor benefits requires the marriage to have lasted at least 10 years. But since your second marriage ended in divorce, and you weren't married when he died, this doesn't apply to you anyway. So you can only claim survivor benefits on your first husband's record, where you meet both the length of marriage requirement and were married at time of death.

Are u SURE about that?? My friend's cousin got SS from BOTH her exes when they died. SSA doesn't tell you everything ur entitled to...they make mistakes ALL THE TIME

I went through something similar when my husband died. The MOST FRUSTRATING part was just trying to get through to someone at Social Security to ask these exact questions! I spent WEEKS trying to get through on their 800 number, getting disconnected after waiting for hours. Finally I found this service called Claimyr that got me through to a real person at SSA in about 20 minutes instead of waiting for hours or days. It saved me SO much stress - here's their site: claimyr.com and they have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU Once I actually talked to someone, they confirmed I could only collect on one ex's record but helped me figure out which was better. Worth getting a real answer directly from SSA since your situation has some complications.

my mom just went through this. she got laid off at 63 and decided to take the survivor benefits early. now shes working part time and has to watch her income or they take money back. she has to stay under $1890/month i think? its super complicated

Thanks to everyone for the helpful responses! I think I understand my situation better now. Just to confirm what I'm hearing: 1. I can only claim survivor benefits on my first husband's record since I was divorced from my second husband when he died 2. If I claim at 65, I'll get about 91.86% of my first husband's benefit 3. If I work while collecting before my FRA, I need to watch my earnings carefully I'm wondering if I should just wait until my FRA to avoid dealing with the earnings test, especially if I find another job soon. But then again, if I remain unemployed for a while, maybe taking reduced benefits now makes sense? It's such a hard decision!

Your so lucky to have been married 33 years and qualify for the survivor benefits! I was married 9 years and 10 months when we divorced - just missed the 10 year cutoff for divorced spouse benefits by TWO MONTHS! 😭 Still bitter about it 7 years later lol

I think everyone's missing something important here. If your own benefit at 70 will be higher than your husband's, you should look at whether your own reduced benefit now would be higher than the survivor benefit at 91.86%. It's complicated math, but if your own benefit at FRA is significantly higher than your deceased husband's, then your own benefit reduced at age 65 might still be better than the survivor benefit. Have you checked what your own benefit would be if you claimed right now vs. the survivor benefit amount?