Community Chat

[KathyPet]

I am sure I can find this info on the SS website if I have the patience but I thought someone here would have a answer a lot quicker. The lady who cleans my house is 54 and divorced with one grown child. She has never paid into SS as she was a stay at home Mom for 20 years and now works cleaning houses. Neither she nor her ex ever remarried. He passed away recently at age 58. he worked at the same company for 35 years. Will she be eligible to collect some of his SS benefit when she reaches the age when she could collect?

[Peaches McPhee]

Yes, I think so. This happened to a friend of mine. If they were married for (I think) 10 years or more. She is eligible for part of his SS.

Even if she gets some of his SS, I hope she has savings! Whatever she does get from SS won't be much.

[adelle38]

She should be entitled to 50% of his benefit when she reaches full retirement age which for her should be age 67.

[patbz]

If she was married at least 10 yrs (and knows his SSN#) she can collect 50% when she becomes eligible.

[CouponQueen]

She is working cleaning houses..she is claiming that as income and paying taxes on it..She should be receiving 1099's from everybody!

[adelle38]

On 12/31/2014 CouponQueen said:

She is working cleaning houses..she is claiming that as income and paying taxes on it..She should be receiving 1099's from everybody!

I wonder if she's getting paid "under the table", but, yes, she has plenty of time to pay into the system and get her own social security.

[LilacTree]

On 12/31/2014 CouponQueen said:

She is working cleaning houses..she is claiming that as income and paying taxes on it..She should be receiving 1099's from everybody!

Legally, yes. But in reality that does not happen.

ETA: I have had cleaning women ask me if I intended to give them a 1099. If I said yes, they turned down the job. (Umm, yes, there was a time that I had cleaning women when I was married.) Anyway, what they either don't realize or don't care about is they won't get credit for all those years of hard work and they won't collect Social Security. So I hope they are saving or investing, or perhaps have husbands who make good money at regular jobs.

Not quite the same thing, but my beloved sister worked in her husband's office for over 25 years (he was a veterinarian) and never took any money for it. When they separated and he moved to Vermont and it came time for her to collect, she didn't get a dime from SS. She said she never knew he wasn't paying into SS, but I never believed her, as she handled the books. My sister was naive about a lot of things. One pays a price for that.

[tuscaloosa]

If she was married ten years or more she is entitled to benefits. If her husband is alive she would get 50%, if her husband is deceased she would get 100%

[pommom]

I am receiving survivorship benefits from ss. My ex-husband and I were divorced 4 years when he passed. I retired two years later and have been collecting off his earnings which were considerably more than mine. It kicked in immediately upon retirement and I even received my first check mid-month in addition to the monthly amount. (Mid-January first installment and I retired in February and received that month's - so within 2 weeks of each other.)

I was required to show the marriage certificate and a copy of the divorce decree.

[ShowMe]

I too was very fortunate to be able to collect SS from my late XDH....... We were married 15 years..... As soon as I knew he had passed, I contacted the SS office here and they told me what I needed to provide to them to collect his...... I did that, and the way they explained it to me was that I would still collect my amount (was retired then) and the difference would come from his SS to make it 100% of what his was. Believe you me, it was worth it...... He remarried, but they were only married not quite 9 years, so she will never ever be able to collect his......that makes me so darn happy because of what she put me through......