Will I only get Social Security survivor benefits when I retire at age 65 while self-employed?

Your friend is only partly right. When you stop working, you won't necessarily just get survivor benefits. SSA will pay you whichever is higher - your own retirement benefit or your survivor benefit. You don't get both added together though. At age 66, you're already at your Full Retirement Age (FRA) for survivor benefits. If you wait until 70 to claim your own retirement benefits, you'll get Delayed Retirement Credits (DRCs) which increase your own benefit by 8% per year. So waiting could potentially make your own benefit higher than the survivor benefit. I suggest calling SSA to get estimates of what your own retirement benefit would be at 70 vs. what you're getting as a survivor. That will help you make the best decision.

To add to what the previous commenter said, as a self-employed person, you should know that SSA uses your highest 35 years of earnings to calculate your retirement benefit. This is called your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). If you continue working until 70, those higher-earning years might replace lower-earning years from earlier in your career, potentially increasing your own retirement benefit. This is especially important for self-employed individuals who often had years with lower reported earnings early in their careers. One strategy to consider: Since you're already at FRA for survivor benefits, you could actually switch to your OWN retirement benefit now if it's higher (though unlikely since you haven't maximized it yet), then switch BACK to survivor benefits later. Or continue with survivor benefits now and switch to your own at 70 if that ends up higher. SSA will help you determine the best approach.

I was in almost the same situation as you. My husband was on SSDI and passed away when I was 64. I kept working at my small business until 70. The survivor benefit was about $2050/month, but MY benefit at 70 ended up being $2890 because of the delayed credits AND because my last few working years were my highest earning years. When I finally stopped working, I had to ACTIVELY request that they review both benefits. They don't automatically give you the higher one - you have to ask them to check! So make sure when you're ready to retire, you specifically request they compare both benefits. It took about 3 months for them to process everything. Also, even though you're working, you should check your earnings record on the SSA website to make sure all your self-employment income is being properly credited. I found errors in mine that would have reduced my benefit if I hadn't caught them.

The system is COMPLETELY RIGGED against us! I went through this exact thing and let me tell you - they make it IMPOSSIBLE to get accurate information. I had to call FIFTEEN TIMES to get someone who actually knew what they were talking about! The first person told me exactly what your friend said - that I could ONLY get survivor benefits forever. WRONG! The second person said I could switch to my own benefit at any time. ALSO WRONG! The third person gave me a completely different answer about some weird offset rule that doesn't even exist!! My advice? Document EVERYTHING. Record names and dates of who you talk to. The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing at SSA and they will mess up your benefits if you don't stay on top of them!!!!

I've been trying to reach someone at SSA for THREE WEEKS about this exact situation. Every time I call, I sit on hold for over an hour and then either get disconnected or told that I need to talk to a different department. I wish I could get through to someone who could explain all this to me clearly. Has anyone found a good way to actually get through to a real person at social security??

my sister in law is going thru this right now. she kept working till 68 after her husband died. She got survivor benefits the whole time and was shocked when they switched her to her own retirement when she stopped working cuz it was like $300 more a month! so ya they should give u the bigger one but u gotta make sure they check both. she said they almost didn't tell her!

you can check your own benefit estimation on the ssa website if u create an account. just go to ssa.gov and make an account. it shows your earnings history and estimated benefits. its not exact but gives u a good idea.

One more thing - be careful about the earnings limit while getting survivor benefits before FRA. But since you're 66 and FRA for survivor benefits is currently 66, you should be past that problem. Just mentioning it for others reading this thread who might be younger.

Something else to consider - since you've been self-employed, make sure all your tax returns accurately reported your self-employment income on Schedule SE. I've seen cases where self-employed people accidentally underreported their income to SSA (while correctly reporting it to IRS), which reduced their Social Security benefits later. If you find any reporting errors from past years, you generally have 3 years, 3 months, and 15 days from the year in question to correct them. So you can't fix very old issues, but more recent ones might be fixable.