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![handle is hein.crs/govefri0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service
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May 3, 2022
Social Security: The Widow(er)'s Limit Provision
Background
Social Security is a work-based federal insurance program
that provides monthly cash benefits to retired or disabled
workers and their family members and to the family
members of deceased workers. Workers become eligible for
Social Security benefits by working in Social Security-
covered employment. Monthly benefits are based on the
worker's career-average earnings in covered employment.
Benefits paid to dependent family members and survivors
are equal to a specified percentage of the worker's basic
monthly benefit amount (subject to a maximum family
benefit amount).
Widow(er) benefits are derived from the deceased worker's
Social Security insurance status and lifetime covered
earnings. Surviving spouses, former spouses, and those with
a qualifying disability may be eligible for survivor benefits
if they meet the age, marriage-duration, and other
requirements for those benefits. In December 2020, nearly
3.6 million individuals received Social Security
nondisabled widow(er) benefits. (About 96.1% were
widows and 88.3% were aged 65 or older.) The average
monthly benefit for those beneficiaries was $1,455.46.
Almost 237,000 individuals received Social Security
disabled widow(er) benefits, with an average monthly
benefit of $770.57.
Benefit Adjustments for Claiming Age
The Social Security full retirement age (FRA) is the age at
which workers can first claimfull (i.e., unreduced) Social
Security retired-worker benefits. The FRA ranges from 65
to 67 depending on birth year. The benefit payable at the
worker's FRA is the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA).
Social Security benefits are adjusted based on the age at
which a person claims benefits. Those adjustments are
designed to provide roughly the same total lifetime benefits
regardless of when a person begins receiving benefits,
based on average life expectancy. The earlier a worker
begins receiving benefits (before the FRA), the lower the
monthly benefit will be to offset the longer expected period
of benefit receipt. Conversely, the longer a worker delays
claiming benefits (past FRA, up to age 70), the higher the
monthly benefit will be to take into account the shorter
expected period of benefit receipt.
Retired Workers
When a worker claims benefits before FRA, there is a
permanent actuarial reduction in monthly benefits. For each
of the 36 months immediately preceding the FRA, the
monthly rate of reduction from the PIA is 5/9 of 1% (or
623% each year). For each month earlier than three years
(each month in excess of 36 months) before FRA, the
monthly rate of reduction is 5/12 of 1% (or 5% each year).
https://crsreport
The earliest a worker can claim retirement benefits is age
62. For workers with a FRA of 67, claiming benefits at 62
results in a permanent 30% benefit reduction.
Workers who claim benefits after the FRA receive a
delayed retirement credit (DRC) up to age 70. The DRC is
2/3 of 1% per month (or 8% per year) for those born in
1943 or later. A worker with an FRA of 67, for example,
receives a 24% permanent benefit increase if he or she
claims benefits at age 70. (See the first row in Table 1.)
Widow(er)s
A widow(er) benefit is affected by the widow(er)'s own
claiming age as well as the deceased worker's claiming age.
Widow(er) benefits can be claimed as early as 60 (or age 50
if disabled), resulting in a wider claiming age range
compared to the retired-worker benefit. Before other
adjustments, the widow(er) benefit is unreduced (i.e., 100%
of the deceased worker's PIA) if the widow(er) claims at
FRA and thereafter. The adjustment for the widow(er)'s
early claiming is a constant rate of reduction reaching a
cumulative maximum reduction of 28.5% if benefits are
claimed at age 60 (or claimed between ages 50 and 60 for a
disabled widow[er]). Unlike retired-worker benefits, there
are no DRCs for widow(er) benefits. (See Table 1, the
column where the deceased worker's claiming age is 67.)
The deceased worker's benefit claiming decision affects
that of his or her surviving spouse in two ways. First, in
terms of a limitation, if the deceased worker started
receiving benefits before reaching his or her FRA, a
survivor can generally receive no larger benefit than what
the deceased worker would have received. Second, a
survivor can inherit a DRC if the deceased worker claimed
benefits after reaching his or her FRA (or if the worker died
after reaching FRA and before claiming benefits). In other
words, a widow(er) cannot receive a DRC directly by
choosing to claim widow(er) benefits after reaching his or
her own FRA, but a widow(er) can benefit indirectly from a
DRC that was applied to the deceased worker's PIA. (See
the last three columns in Table 1 for an example.)
Widow(er)'s Limit Provision (WLP)
If the deceased worker claimed benefits before the FRA,
and was therefore receiving a reduced benefit, the
widow(er) benefit may be reduced as well. This provision is
referred to as the widow(er)'s limit provision (WLP) and
was enacted as part of the Social Security Amendments of
1972 (P.L. 92-603). It is intended to prevent the widow(er)
benefit from exceeding the deceased worker's retirement
benefit. It does not apply if the deceased worker died before
age 62. Under this provision, the widow(er) benefit is
limited to the higher of (1) the benefit the deceased worker](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govefri0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)