The widow's penalty can reduce your Social Security income after a spouse dies. Learn how this works, why it happens, and ...

A new bill in Congress, the SWIFT Act, aims to increase Social Security survivor benefits for widows, widowers, and surviving ...

When a spouse dies, the emotional shock often collides with an immediate financial question: what happens to the Social Security income that helped pay the bills. Survivor rules are technical, but ...

If a person who was getting Social Security benefits dies, but doesn’t have a spouse, then someone needs to notify the SSA of the death and follow the rules explained above about returning the last ...

Survivor benefits come with complex rules, and one wrong move could cost you. Timing when you claim your benefit or switch can significantly impact lifetime income. Smart strategies like delaying or ...

You could file for widow’s benefits now. But those benefits would be reduced because you have not reached your full retirement age. Or, if you think you could live on your own retirement benefit for a ...

Over the past 17 years that I have been doing this column, I have written about 50 columns dealing with the Social Security offsets that impact some state and local government employees who work at ...

Millions of Americans rely on Social Security for most or all of their retirement income. Unfortunately, not everyone has a sufficient career earnings record to qualify for a worthwhile benefit.