Hey y'all
My wife is facing the death of her mother and I'm working through their finances to make sure the Father-In-Law.
They are both drawing SS benefits with the MIL drawing more than the FIL.
FIL is also drawing VA and retirement from Post Office.

Anybody know what will happen to all of those benefits? I'm assuming the VA and Post Office retirement will remain.
Wil the SS benefits change? If so, in what way?

Thanks for your help.

pm zeek.

I think he may be able to keep the wifes ss coming, not sure at all though.

Check with your local SS office. It used to be that the surviving spouse could draw the deceased spouse's payment if it was larger. My mom did that when my dad died.

I'm not sure about the other two.

This. Is what I know too. You have to pick one to draw, the larger of the two.

Actually I think you get all of the highest SS and half of the smallest amount.

That would be new if true. It didn't work that way with my mom. She only got the larger amount.

I’m no accountant.

Google says this is the truth….

I believe Spousal Survivor benefits would only help if its above the surviving spouses benefit. I want to say its 50 % but hopefully some of the pros will chime in on this. I read up on it before and the survivor cant “Double Dip” with both benefits. It can get confusing.

Not to change the channel of this, However,

What the devil is this commercial saying up to $144.00 added to your mouthy payment depending on your Zip code ? See it written, however wont call and expose yet another calling channel.

The spouse may be eligible for CHAMPVA benefits? Check with your local SSC Office and local Veteran Service Organization.

https://www.va.gov/vso/

If they were married long enough, the FIL will get an adjusted benefit amount equal to the MIL benefit when the MIL passes. My uncle was a postal employee that received a postal pension for more years than he worked there - the amount was not impacted by the death of his wife. However, in the corporate world, pension benefits can be impacted by the death of a spouse depending on the election the beneficiary made when he/she started receiving the pension - post office may have a similar provision.

They are trying to get you to switch from Original Medicare to one of the Advantage Plans.

Good luck. I was on the phone with the SS office to ask what I thought was a simple question. More confused after the call then when I called in. It ended with, have your wife call in when she can to get a telephone appointment. LOL!

Somehow that’s all believable.