Do two surviving spouses have to split Social Security survivor benefits when both were married 20+ years?

First, I'm very sorry for your loss. The good news is that both your mom and your dad's widow can potentially receive 100% of their respective survivor benefits - they don't have to split anything. Your mom would receive divorced spouse survivor benefits and his widow would receive widow's benefits. The calculations are separate, and one doesn't reduce the other. As long as your mom was married to your dad for at least 10 years (which she was at 23 years) and didn't remarry before age 60, she qualifies for the divorced spouse survivor benefit. The current widow automatically qualifies since they were married at the time of his death.

When my husband died, I had to deal with something similar cause his ex-wife tried claiming benefits too. Different than yours tho since she had remarried. SS office told me that ex-spouses and current spouses claims don't affect each other. They're like separate accounts kinda.

To answer your follow-up question, they would each be eligible for up to 100% of your father's Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) at their FRA. So if his benefit was $3,200/month, each could potentially receive up to that amount, depending on their own work history and whether they're already receiving their own retirement benefits. If either one is already receiving Social Security retirement on their own record, SSA will pay the higher of the two amounts (not both). The SSA determines this using a somewhat complex formula: 1) If they're already receiving retirement benefits, they'll get the higher of either their own benefit or a combination that equals your father's amount 2) If they haven't started receiving any benefits yet, they have more options, including taking the survivor benefit first and switching to their own later if it would be higher It's important both women schedule appointments with SSA to understand their specific options based on their individual work histories.

I went through something similar last year helping my aunt. The most frustrating part was trying to reach someone at Social Security. After getting disconnected multiple times and waiting on hold for what felt like forever, I found a service called Claimyr that got me through to a real person at SSA in about 20 minutes. It was such a relief to actually speak with someone who could answer specific questions about her survivor benefits. You can check them out at claimyr.com - they have a demo video at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU that shows how it works. Made dealing with SSA during an already difficult time so much less stressful.

Does anyone know if the benefits amounts can be different between the ex-wife and current wife even if they're both at FRA? My understanding is that they could get different amounts based on when your dad started collecting his own benefits and other factors.

i thought exwifes dont get anything if theres a current wife??? when my brother died his exwife tried to claim and got denied

I wanted to update everyone - I finally spoke with someone at SSA yesterday using that Claimyr service (which worked amazingly well!). The representative confirmed what you all said - both my mom and stepmom can receive their full survivor benefits without splitting them. They'll each need to apply separately. My mom will apply for divorced spouse survivor benefits, and my stepmom for widow benefits. The rep also suggested they both schedule individual appointments to discuss their optimal filing strategies since they have their own work records to consider too. Thanks everyone for your help during this difficult time.

My cousin had to fight for MONTHS to get her survivor benefits!!! She was married for 22 years but SSA kept saying they couldn't "verify" the marriage even tho she had the certificate!!! Make sure both ladies bring EXTRA copies of EVERYTHING and get names of EVERYONE they talk to!!!