Sometimes people will write to me complaining that the government, specifically the Social Security Administration, has messed up and cheated them out of benefits they might have been due. But many times, the fault (to trivialize a famous line from Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar”) is not in our government, but in ourselves. Here are some examples of what I mean.
And I’m not sure how things work today, but I know that 10 years ago, the Social Security retirement application had a question on it that essentially asked something like this: “Are you unable to work because of a disabling condition?” You must have answered that question “No,” because a “Yes” answer would have led you down the path to a claim for Social Security disability benefits.
Let’s start out with your complaint that no one from Social Security ever told you that if you remarry before age 60, you lose your potential eligibility for benefits from your first husband’s Social Security account. Did you expect that a Social Security representative would be stationed at every marriage license bureau in the country ready to advise remarrying widows about the age 60 rule?
If I were a woman considering a second marriage, and if I were concerned about Social Security benefits from a former husband’s record, I would have checked into this. For example, a simple Google search using the keywords “remarriage” and “Social Security” turns up all kinds of information from the Social Security Administration and other sources that would have answered all your questions.
And as far as the little gimmick your accountant pulled by putting all the earnings on your husband’s Social Security record, once again, I think you do have to accept some responsibility for what happened. For example, if I were a woman involved in a business with my husband, and my tax preparer said, “Let’s give all the earnings and credit for the business to your husband,” I would have said, “Wait a minute.
Does that really make sense?”
But believe me, I know that’s easier said than done. Over the years, I have heard from hundreds, if not thousands, of moms in a “mom and pop” business who are in the same boat as you. They let themselves get talked into going along with this male-oriented tax-filing scheme.
As I have written in many past columns about this issue (and that I simply don’t have the space to cover in today’s column), this practice can work out for couples who stay married forever and who both live well into their retirement years. It has to do with the combination of retirement benefits payable to the husband and spousal benefits payable to the wife.
But that tax-filing practice generally does not work out for women who get divorced or for widows who remarry before the age of 60.
You also wondered why the Social Security Administration simply can’t give you your share of earnings from the business. That’s not how it works. As I said, you (but probably mostly your accountant and your first husband) made the decision a long time ago to give all the business earnings to your husband. By law, the SSA must go along with how things were reported on your tax returns.
The only bit of solace I can give you is this: If your second marriage ends (by death or divorce), then you would be able to go back and claim widow’s benefits on your first husband’s Social Security record.
