Confused about Social Security survivor benefits vs. spousal benefits at FRA - 50% difference?

No, survivor benefits are different from spousal benefits. When your spouse is alive, the spousal benefit at FRA is 50% of your spouse's primary insurance amount. But when your spouse dies, the survivor benefit can be up to 100% of what your deceased spouse was receiving at the time of death. If your father claims before his FRA and then passes away, your mother's survivor benefit would be reduced accordingly.

The previous comment is correct - widow(er) benefits can be up to 100% of the deceased spouse's benefit amount, not 50%. This is one reason why it's often a good strategy for the higher-earning spouse to delay claiming as long as possible - it maximizes the survivor benefit. Your mom should be aware that she can claim as early as age 60 as a widow (or 50 if disabled), but claiming early will permanently reduce her benefit amount.

i thnk everyone here is rite but jus to be clear the 50% is ONLY when ur spouse is alive. when they die u get the FULL amount they were getting when they died. thats y its good for the bigger earner to wait til 70 if they can.

Let me add something important - if your mother claims widow benefits before her FRA, they'll be reduced. The reduction is about 0.396% for each month before her FRA. So if her FRA is 67 and she claims at 60, that's 84 months early, resulting in approximately a 33.3% reduction from what she would get if she waited until her FRA to claim widow benefits. This is different from retirement benefit reductions, which is why it's so complicated!

My sister went through this exact situation!!! She was getting half of her husbands benefit while he was alive then when he passed she got his full benefit. BUT they reduced it because she was only 62 when he died. Nobody told her she could have waited until her full retirement age (66 for her) and gotten the FULL AMOUNT with no reduction. So your mom needs to really think about when to claim if your dad passes away. Sometimes it's worth waiting even though it's hard to live on less.

my neighbor tried to call social security to get info about survivor benefits and was on hold for 3 HOURS before giving up. good luck getting thru to them these days...

Thanks everyone for all this helpful information! I'm going to sit down with my parents and go through all these options. Sounds like the key points are: 1) Survivor benefits are up to 100% of deceased spouse's amount, not 50% like spousal benefits, 2) Dad should consider delaying his claim to maximize mom's potential survivor benefit, and 3) Mom needs to be careful about when she claims survivor benefits to avoid unnecessary reductions. I'll definitely check out that Claimyr service too if we need to speak with SSA directly. This community has been so helpful!

DON'T FORGET that if ur mom has earned ANY social security on her own record, she should ask SSA about that too. Even with limited work history she might qualify for SOMETHING on her own record and that could affect the math of when to claim!!! The whole thing is SOOOOO confusing and the SSA people sometimes give wrong info!!