Dear Editor:
Anne was a battered wife. By the time she was 45, she had enough of her abusive husband and would do anything to get out of her 15-year marriage. As part of her divorce agreement, she signed a clause relinquishing her rights to her ex-husband’s Social Security benefits.
That was 20 years ago and Social Security was just not on Anne’s radar screen. But now she’s pushing 65 and thinking about retiring. She’s worked for years at several low-paying jobs, and her estimated Social Security check is only about $800 per month. She stopped by our office and now says she wishes she had never signed away her rights to her ex-husband’s Social Security. She learned from friends that he’s getting almost $1,400 per month.
But we had good news for her. She did not “sign away” her ex-husband’s Social Security benefits. That clause the lawyer added to the divorce decree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Federal law overrides anything that lawyers might add to divorce papers. And Social Security law says that because Anne was married for more than 10 years and because she never remarried, she is due some of her ex’s Social Security.
She gets the same Social Security benefits as a currently married woman: anywhere from one-third to one-half of her ex’s retirement benefits while he’s still living, and up to 100 percent of it when he dies.
Anne was worried that her ex might get upset because she’s taking away some of his retirement benefits. But we assured her that she’s not. Anything we pay to Anne will not reduce his benefits. And if he remarried, anything we pay Anne does not reduce any benefits due his current wife. In other words, two or more women can draw full wife’s or widow’s benefits on the same man’s record.
However, the benefits we pay Anne on her ex-husband’s record will be offset by her own retirement benefit. That means while her ex is still living, she won’t get anything on his record because her own retirement benefit ($800) is more than one-half of his ($700). But if he dies before she does, we can augment her Social Security retirement check with the additional divorced widow’s benefits she would be due. For example, if her ex-husband were to die this month, Anne would continue to get her $800 retirement check and we’d supplement that with $600 on his record to take her up to the $1,400 divorced widow’s rate.
For more information, go to this link on our website: www.ssa.gov/pubs/10127.html. There, you can read the publication, Social Security: What Every Woman Should Know. Or you can request a free copy by calling 1-800-772-1213. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you can call our TTY number, 1-800-325-0778.
Yvonne Bryant
Social Security Office Manager