Can I get retroactive survivor benefits from age 59 if I haven't claimed my deceased husband's Social Security yet?

I'm so sorry for your loss. To answer your question directly: no, you cannot get retroactive survivor benefits back to age 59. Survivor benefits can only be paid retroactively for up to 6 months before your application date, and only if you were already eligible during those months. As a widow, you can claim as early as age 60 (or age 50 if disabled), but retroactive payments still max out at 6 months and never before the earliest eligibility age. Since you're 62 now, if you apply immediately, you might get up to 6 months of back payments, but nothing going back to 59. You should know that taking survivor benefits at 62 means a reduced amount compared to waiting until your Full Retirement Age. Have you considered taking survivor benefits now and switching to your own retirement benefit later if it would be higher?

my mom went thru something similar last yr. SSA doesnt care if u didnt know the rules they only go back 6 mths no matter what. its super frustrating cause how are regular ppl supposed to know all these complicated rules?? sorry ur dealing with this 😕

THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU'RE ENTITLED TO!!! I lost almost $10,000 in benefits because nobody told me I could file for my ex-husband's record when he died. By the time I found out, it was too late. They count on people not knowing the rules so they can save money. It's disgusting how they treat seniors who paid into the system our whole lives!!!!

I had to call SSA 37 times over 3 weeks before I finally got through to someone about my survivor benefits last year. When I finally did, they were actually quite helpful and explained all my options, including the restricted application strategy that let me take survivor benefits while my own retirement benefit continues growing. If you're having trouble reaching someone, I found a service called Claimyr that got me through to an agent without the endless waiting. Their site is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU Definitely worth it to get your questions answered directly by SSA since your situation might have specific details that general advice online doesn't cover. Good luck!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that you might want to consider whether taking your survivor benefits now is actually your best strategy. If your own retirement benefit at 70 would be higher than your survivor benefit, you might want to take the survivor benefit now and switch to your own later. Or vice versa if your survivor benefit at FRA would be higher than your own at 70. This is called a restricted application strategy and it's one of the few remaining ways to optimize Social Security benefits. Not everyone qualifies for it, but widows and widowers still do. As for retroactive benefits, I've never heard of anyone getting more than 6 months, regardless of when they became eligible. The SSA rules on this are pretty clear and strict unfortunately.

my aunt went thru this same thing last year! she thought she could get backpay from when her husband died 5 years ago but they only gave her 6 months back from when she applied. she tried to appeal it saying nobody told her she could apply earlier but they denied it. its totally not fair but thats how they do it :

I think everyone is missing something - if you're 62 now and your husband died 3 years ago, you would have been 59 when he died. You wouldn't have been eligible for survivor benefits until you turned 60 anyway (unless you're disabled). So the earliest you could have received benefits would have been at age 60, and now you can only get 6 months back from whenever you apply. Sorry about your husband 💔

One more important thing to be aware of: If you're still working, your survivor benefits may be reduced by the Social Security earnings test if you earn above certain limits ($21,240 in 2025). This applies until you reach your Full Retirement Age, at which point the earnings test goes away completely. Since you mentioned working part-time, you might not hit this limit, but it's something to be aware of when deciding whether to apply now or wait. Any benefits lost to the earnings test aren't truly lost - they're added back into your benefit calculation when you reach FRA - but it does affect your short-term cash flow.