Social Security When a Spouse Dies - Guide to Survivor Benefits

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Andy Markowitz

Updated December 05, 2025

En español

Updated December 05, 2025

When a Social Security beneficiary dies, their surviving spouse is eligible for survivor benefits. More than 3.8 million widows and widowers, including some divorced from late beneficiaries, were receiving survivor benefits as of September 2025.

A surviving spouse can collect 100 percent of the late spouse’s benefit if the survivor has reached full retirement age (FRA), but the amount will be lower if the deceased spouse claims benefits before reaching that age. (FRA for survivor benefits differs from that for retirement and spousal benefits; it is 66 and 6 months for surviving spouses born in 1959 and gradually increases to 67 for those born in 1962 and later.)

If you were already receiving spousal benefits on your mate’s work record, Social Security will in most cases switch you automatically to survivor benefits when their death is reported. Otherwise, you will need to apply. Call the Social Security Administration (SSA) at 800-772-1213 to schedule an appointment to file your claim.

In most cases, a widow or widower qualifies for survivor benefits if he or she is at least 60 and was married to the deceased for at least nine months at the time of death. There are a few exceptions to those requirements:

If the late spouse’s death was accidental or occurred in the line of U.S. military duty, there’s no length-of-marriage requirement.
You can apply for survivor benefits as early as age 50 if you have a disability that occurred within seven years of your spouse’s death.
If you care for children from the marriage who are under 16 or have a disability, you can apply at any age.

How much Social Security do survivors receive?

Whether you get married again can also affect eligibility. If the remarriage took place before you turned 60 (50 if you have a disability), you cannot draw survivor benefits. You regain eligibility if that marriage ends. There is no effect on eligibility for survivor benefits if you remarry at or past those ages.

The amount of your survivor benefit is generally based on what your late spouse was receiving from Social Security at the time of death (or was entitled to receive, based on age and earnings history, if they had not yet claimed benefits). The actual payment may differ according to your age and family circumstances:

As noted above, if you have reached full retirement age for survivors, you get 100 percent of the benefit your spouse was (or would have been) collecting.
If you claim survivor benefits between the age of 60 and your full retirement age, you will receive between 71.5 percent and 99 percent of the deceased’s benefit. The percentage gets higher the closer you are to full retirement age when you claim.
If you claim in your 50s due to a disability, the survivor benefit is 71.5 percent of your late spouse's benefit.
If you apply based on caring for a child who is under 16 or has a disability, you can collect 75 percent of the late spouse’s benefit, regardless of your age.

Keep in mind

You need not have been married to a beneficiary at the time of death to get survivor benefits. You may qualify as the divorced former spouse of a Social Security recipient.
It does not matter whether you worked long enough to qualify for Social Security on your own. You can still collect benefits on your late spouse’s work record. However, if you are eligible for a retirement benefit, you won’t get both that and a survivor benefit. Social Security will pay the higher of the two benefit amounts.
If you are below full retirement age and still working, Social Security’s earnings limit could affect your survivor benefit.