Will my mother's Social Security survivor benefits stop at 76 if she remarries? No spousal benefits for 10 years?

Actually, the rules are different for people over 60! If your mother is 76, she can remarry without losing her survivor benefits from her late husband. The rule about losing survivor benefits upon remarriage only applies to people who remarry before age 60 (or age 50 if disabled). Since your mom is well past 60, she can keep getting exactly what she's getting now even after she remarries.

The previous commenter is correct. Your mother can keep her survivor benefits after remarriage because she's over age 60. This is specifically addressed in SSA rules. She does NOT need to wait 10 years for spousal benefits either - that rule applies to divorced spouse benefits, not to someone who is currently married. If her new husband's retirement benefit would provide a higher monthly amount, she could apply for spousal benefits right away (though there would be an actual marriage duration requirement of 1 year in most cases before spousal benefits begin). The SSA will pay whichever amount is higher - her current survivor benefit or the new spousal benefit - but not both combined.

100% POSITIVE about this. I work helping seniors with their benefits. The age 60 rule for remarriage has been in place for decades. If someone over 60 remarries, they keep their survivor benefits. If your aunt lost benefits, there must have been some other factor involved - maybe she switched to a higher spousal benefit on the new husband's record? Or maybe there was another issue entirely. For the original poster: Your mother will be FINE financially with her remarriage. The SSA even has this stated clearly on their website under survivor benefits and remarriage. Tell your mom congratulations from all of us!

I went through this exact situation with my own mother (82) who remarried 3 years ago. She kept her survivor benefits without any interruption. However, I would strongly recommend that your mother contact SSA directly to confirm this for her specific situation, as individual circumstances can sometimes affect benefits in ways that general rules don't capture. She should probably notify them of the marriage once it happens, too.

I had the same problem reaching SSA until I found a service called Claimyr that got me connected to a real SSA agent in under 10 minutes. Saved me hours of frustration. You can check it out at claimyr.com - they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU For what it's worth, when I did speak with SSA, they confirmed that remarriage after 60 doesn't affect survivor benefits. I was calling for my sister who was in a similar situation, and SSA was very clear that her benefits would continue unchanged.

wait i'm confused...so the 10 year marriage rule is ONLY for divorced spouses?? but if ur currently married u can get spousal benefits right away??? thats not what they told my cousin!!

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - your mom should still have a conversation with her fiancé about finances before marriage. While her survivor benefits are protected, there could be other financial considerations like healthcare coverage, assets, etc. that might be affected by marriage. Always good to go into a new marriage with full financial transparency!

Something else to consider - if your mom has Medicare and gets Extra Help with prescription costs or has Medicaid coverage, marriage could affect those benefits since they're income-based. The survivor benefits won't change, but household income calculations for other programs might. Just something to be aware of.

Thank you all so much for the helpful information! I just talked to Mom and she's incredibly relieved. She was actually considering postponing the marriage because of the financial concerns, but now she feels comfortable moving forward. She does have some Extra Help with her Medicare Part D, so we'll look into how that might be affected. I'm going to help her schedule an appointment with SSA to confirm everything for her specific situation. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to share your knowledge!