{"id":292314,"date":"2026-10-16T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/?p=292314"},"modified":"2026-10-16T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:00:00","slug":"widows-widowers-social-security-2027-cola-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/widows-widowers-social-security-2027-cola-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Widows and widowers will receive an average of $2,005 from Social Security in 2027: requirements to collect a survivor benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Widows and widowers<\/strong> who receive a <strong>Social Security survivor benefit<\/strong> will also see their checks grow in 2027. The <strong>Social Security Administration (SSA)<\/strong> estimates that the average benefit for an <strong>aged widow or widower living alone<\/strong> will rise from <strong>$1,936 to $2,005 a month<\/strong> with the 3.6% COLA.<\/p>\n<p>Survivor benefits are paid to the family members of a worker who has died, as long as that worker had earned enough work credits. They are among the most important benefits of the system, especially for older women.<\/p>\n<h2>Requirements to collect a widow&#8217;s or widower&#8217;s benefit<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Age<\/strong> | from 60, or from 50 if the surviving spouse has a disability. At any age if they care for the deceased&#8217;s child under 16 or with a disability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Length of marriage<\/strong> | generally at least nine months, with some exceptions such as accidental death.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Divorced spouses<\/strong> | can qualify if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Remarriage<\/strong> | remarrying before age 60 (50 if disabled) usually ends the right to the benefit. Remarrying after that age does not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How much a survivor receives<\/h2>\n<p>A widow or widower who claims at <strong>full retirement age<\/strong> receives 100% of the deceased worker&#8217;s benefit. Claiming at 60 means receiving between <strong>71.5% and 99%<\/strong>, depending on the exact age. That reduction is permanent.<\/p>\n<p>A surviving spouse who also has their own retirement benefit does not receive both in full. The SSA pays the higher of the two. A common strategy is to collect one first and switch to the other later, when it is larger.<\/p>\n<h2>Survivors with children<\/h2>\n<p>The COLA also raises family benefits. The SSA estimates that a <strong>widowed mother with two children<\/strong> will receive an average of $4,074 a month in 2027, compared with $3,932 now. Each child can receive up to 75% of the deceased parent&#8217;s benefit, within the family maximum.<\/p>\n<h2>When the increase arrives<\/h2>\n<p>The 3.6% raise applies to the January 2027 benefit. Survivors are paid according to the deceased worker&#8217;s birthday, on January 13, 20 or 27, or on December 31 for those who have been receiving benefits since before May 1997.<\/p>\n<p>The increase is automatic. To see the new amount before the letter arrives, survivors can use their account, as we explained in our article about <a href=\"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/my-social-security-account-november-18-cola-notice-2027\/\">the November 18 deadline for my Social Security<\/a>. The general amounts for other groups are detailed in our report on <a href=\"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/social-security-cola-2027-3-6-percent-retirees-75-more\/\">the 2027 COLA for retirees<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The average check for an aged widow or widower rises from $1,936 to $2,005 in 2027. Ages, marriage length and remarriage rules for survivors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,10,2],"class_list":["post-292314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-cola","tag-retirement","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292316,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292314\/revisions\/292316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tododisca.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}