Will $18,000 gift money affect my Social Security survivor benefits at age 65?

Good news - gifts don't count as income for Social Security retirement or survivor benefits! The SSA only looks at earned income (from working) when determining if your benefits should be reduced. Gifts, inheritances, lottery winnings, etc. don't affect your survivor benefits at all. No need to report it to SSA either. However, if you're also receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income), that's different - SSI does count gifts as income and has resource limits. But regular Social Security retirement or survivor benefits aren't affected by gifts.

my mom got a 25k gift from her brother last year and her SS checks stayed exactly the same. ur totally fine to take the money!

Be careful though! I had a gift from my daughter and while it didn't affect my SS survivors benefits, it DID affect my Medicare premium the following year because of IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount). If you file taxes and include that gift, it could potentially push your income into a higher IRMAA bracket for Medicare. But this only happens with very large gifts that significantly increase your taxable income.

I've been on survivor benefits for 7 years now and let me tell you the SSA is HORRIBLE about explaining these rules!!! When my husband died they never explained ANYTHING properly. I was so worried about every penny affecting my benefits that I turned down help from family for YEARS!!! Found out later it was all for nothing - gifts don't count! The only thing that affects survivor benefits is if you're under FRA and have EARNED income above the annual limit. For 2025 I think that's around $22,000 (someone correct me if I'm wrong). But gifts, lottery, inheritance - none of that counts against you!! TAKE THE MONEY AND FIX YOUR HOUSE!!!

My sister got a gift from her kids last year for home repairs too... similar amount... around 20k I think? She was worried about the same thing but nothing happened with her benefits. The only thing she did was make sure the money was properly documented as a gift for tax purposes. BTW - the gift tax is paid by the giver not the receiver, and only applies to gifts over $18,000 per person per year anyway.

Have you tried calling Social Security to ask directly? I tried for THREE DAYS last month to get through to ask about my benefits and kept getting disconnected or had to wait for hours. I finally used this service called Claimyr that someone here recommended (claimyr.com) - they got me connected to a real SSA agent in about 30 minutes instead of waiting for hours. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed for me that gifts don't count as income for regular Social Security benefits, but it's always good to hear it directly from SSA for your specific situation.

just wondering what kind of repairs ur doing with the 18k? i need to redo my bathroom but getting quotes for like 30k!!

One more thing to be aware of - you mentioned you're 65. When you reach your Full Retirement Age (66 or 67 depending on birth year), you might want to look into whether you qualify for retirement benefits on your own record. Sometimes people can get higher benefits by switching from survivor benefits to their own retirement benefits (or vice versa). It's worth checking with SSA about this when you reach FRA.