Your Social Security

By DAVID BROWN

There are many things women should know about Social Security. But here are five of the most important Social Security messages every woman should know.

1. Nothing keeps you from getting your own Social Security benefit.

 If you've worked for at least 10 years and earned a minimum of 40 work credits, you are vested in the Social Security system.

•  As soon as you reach age 62, you will be eligible for your own Social Security benefit whether you're married or not or whether your husband collects Social Security or not.
• Your retirement benefit is figured the same way a man's retirement benefit is figured. It's based on a percentage of your average monthly wage using a 35-year base of earnings.
•  If you become disabled before your full retirement age, you might qualify for Social Security disability benefits if you've worked and paid Social Security taxes in five of the preceding 10 years.
•  If you also get a pension from a job where you didn't pay Social Security taxes (e.g., a civil service or teacher's pension), your Social Security benefit might be reduced.

2. There is no marriage penalty or limit to benefits paid to a married couple.

• If you are married and both you and your husband have worked, you each will be paid your own Social Security benefit.
• A working woman is not limited to one-half of her husband's Social Security. (That is the spouse's rate paid to a woman who has not earned a higher benefit on her own work record.)
• So, for example, if you are due a Social Security benefit of $1,200 per month and your husband is due a Social Security benefit of $1,000 per month, together you will be paid $2,200 per month in retirement benefits.

3. If you are married, you might be due benefits on your husband's record.

•  Most women are potentially due two benefits: your own retirement benefit and a wife's benefit on your husband's record.
•  But you only get the one that pays the higher rate, not both.
•  Generally, a wife is due between one-third and one-half of her husband's Social Security, depending on the age that she starts receiving benefits.
•  Most working women who reach retirement age get their own Social Security benefit, because it's more than one-third to one-half of the husband's rate.
•  But if your husband dies before you, you can apply for the higher widow's rate. (See number 4 below.)

4. When your husband dies, you're probably due a widow's benefit. _ Widows are due between 71 percent (at age 60) and 100 percent (at full retirement age) of what the husband was getting before he died.

•  If you're also due your own Social Security, you'll have the option of getting a reduced benefit on one record and later switching to a higher benefit on the other record.
• We also can pay you a $255 one-time death benefit if you were living with your husband when he died.
•  If you made more money than your husband did, then he might be due a benefit on your record if you die before he does.

5. If you're divorced and were married at least 10 years, you might be eligible for benefits based on your ex-spouse's record.

• Divorced women married at least 10 years are eligible for Social Security on the ex-husband's record if they are unmarried at the time they become eligible for Social Security and if their own retirement benefits are less.
• Some women sign divorce decrees relinquishing their rights to Social Security on their ex-husband's record. Those clauses in divorce decrees are worthless and are never enforced. If you meet the requirements for Social Security divorced wife's benefits, you can apply for and receive those benefits regardless of the terms of the divorce decree.
• Any benefits paid to a divorced spouse do not reduce payments made to the exhusband or any payments due the ex-husband's current spouse.
• Generally, the same payment rules apply to divorced wives and widows as to current wives and widows.

Mr. Brown is District Manager of the Social Security Administration's Downtown New York Office.