A little known provision of the Social Security system allows parents to receive Social Security benefits if their child dies or becomes disabled. These are called Parent’s Benefits, which can easily be confused with Mother’s and Father’s Benefits (which are paid when one parent dies leaving the other to care for a child under 16 years of age).

Social Security Parent’s Benefits are not available every time a child dies or becomes disabled. The critical elements are that the parent is at least 62 years old and dependent on the disabled or deceased child.

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Can a divorced husband or wife collects Social Security survivor’s benefits (widow’s or widow’s benefits) after a divorce?

Yes, in some circumstances, they can.

Here is a summary of the requirements:

You had to be married for at least 10 years before the divorce became final.
You are at least 60 years old; or you are at least 50 years old and have a disability.

If you are at least 50 and have a disability, the disability had to start not later than 7 years after the insured died or 7 years after you were last entitled to mother’s or father’s benefits or to widow’s or widower’s benefits based upon a disability, whichever occurred last.

You are not entitled to an old-age benefit that is equal to or larger than the insured person’s primary insurance amount
You are unmarried, unless for benefits for months after 1983 you meet one of the following conditions:

You remarried after you became 60 years old; or
You are now age 60 or older and you remarried after age 50 but before attaining age 60 AND at the time of the remarriage, you were entitled to widow’s or widower’s benefits as a disabled widow or widower; or
You are now at least age 50 but not yet age 60 and you remarried after attaining age 50 AND you are disabled AND your disability began within the specified time of subsection c in the regulation listed below.

Want an even simpler version? Here is a short and sweet version (with the exceptions cut out):

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Children can often receive Social Security benefits if a parent is disabled or deceased. I have previously written about these kind of Social Security auxiliary and survivors benefits. However, there are times when proving paternity becomes an issue. Here are a couple of situations where this comes up:

Parents separate and, the non-custodial father becomes disabled (potential auxiliary benefits based on a disabled parent).
Common law marriages with a disabled husband or wife splitting with the father denying paternity (potential auxiliary benefits based on a disabled parent).
Father dies (potential survivors benefits based on a deceased parent) but Social Security denies the claim because there is not enough evidence proving paternity.

Note: most of the examples deal with paternity. However, the same laws apply if there is a question  of who the mother is.

Also, I am focusing on resolving paternity without a court ordered DNA test or exhumation.

Social Security has regulations describing when a child is a “natural child” of the parent (full text below). Note: for adopted children, check out this article.

According to Social Security’s regulations, a child may be eligible to receive benefits from the insured if:

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If your husband or wife dies, you may wonder if you can receive Social Security benefits based on your spouse’s contribution to Social Security. This is especially important if your spouse made more money than you, or if your spouse was the sole earner and you did not work. Many worry that if they cannot receive Social Security based on their spouse’s earnings, they may not be able to get Social Security.

For most people, here is what you need to know to answer the question whether you can get Social Security survivors’ benefits after your spouse dies. Most survivor’s benefit claims depend on meeting one of two requirements:

You have to be 60 years old, or
You have to be at least 50 years old and be found disabled by Social Security.

There are additional requirement, such as the duration of the marriage, or the disability starting within 7 years of the spouses death. These are outlined below.

Note: Even if you do not meet either of the Survivor’s Benefits criteria above, you still may be eligible for Social Security Parent’s Benefits if you are taking care of a child. This post reviews the benefits available for widows/ers and children.

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A child may be entitled to receive Social Security child’s benefits if a parent dies. These are called survivor’s benefits.

However, under Social Security Regulations (20 CFR 404.352), the entitlement to child’s benefits may end for any of the following reasons.

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Children can be entitled to receive Social Security child’s benefits if the deceased parent was fully insured by Social Security and if they meet 5 tests:

The child is the insured person’s child. See §§404.355 through 404.359;
The child is dependent on the insured. See §§404.360 through 404.365;
The child applies for benefits;
The child is unmarried; and
The child is under age 18; – OR – 18 years old or older and has a disability that began before the child became …

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If a parent dies, the surviving spouse may be eligible for benefits if he or she is caring for a the deceased’s child and the child is under 16 years old or disabled. These are called Mother’s and Father’s benefits.  See 20 CFR Section 404.339 for more information.

Mother’s and Father’s benefits are separate from the survivor’s benefits the child may be entitled to due to the death of a parent. This is a little known subset of …

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Survivors’ benefits are a type of Social Security benefits paid to surviving family members when someone dies.  This may include benefits paid to the widow(er), parents or children.

In my experience, not a lot of attorneys take survivors’ benefits cases so it is difficult to get your questions answered:

Am I, or my children, eligible for survivors’ benefits?
When am I, or my children, eligible for survivors’ benefits?
Social Security stopped my, or my children’s, survivors’ benefits.  Why?

Social Security has a Electronic Fact Sheet which provides a summary of who may be eligible to receive monthly benefits. If Social Security stops …

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