Claims

• Social Security suggests that survivors file claims soon after the death of the worker, even if paperwork is not available. Funeral homes often send the information to Social Security, so death records may already be on file. Social Security has resources to obtain other documentation you may need, and your application can be in process before documentation arrives.
  
  

Qualifications

• A spouse must be age 60 -- or 50 if disabled -- to qualify for survivor benefits. However, if the surviving spouse is caring for the deceased's child who is under 16 or disabled, she can receive benefits at any time. Ex-spouses are also eligible for survivor benefits but must meet the additional requirement of having been married to the deceased for at least 10 years and must not be remarried. The 10-year requirement does not apply to ex-spouses caring for a minor or disabled child of the deceased. In addition, children of the deceased under 18, or 19 if still in high school, can receive survivor benefits as can parents of the deceased if the deceased paid more than half of their support and the parents are age 62 or older.
  
  

Retroactive Payments

• Survivor claims may be payable up to six months retroactively if the individual qualifies back to that date, and the date does precede the worker's death. Survivors are eligible for the full month in which the deceased died. If you have started receiving survivor benefits and then become ineligible, your benefits stop the month before the month of ineligibility. If the deceased had been receiving Social Security benefits at the time of death, you must return the payment for the month of death.
  
  

Amount

• Social Security bases survivor benefits on the work history and income of the deceased worker over years of employment. The worker's full retirement age benefit determines the benefit of the survivor unless the worker took early retirement, in which case it is based on the deceased's reduced early retirement benefit. An unmarried spouse or ex-spouse receives 71.5 percent of the worker's full-retirement-age benefit at age 60. A spouse caring for the deceased's child younger than 16 receives 75 percent, and the child receives 75 percent to age 18.