Were you aware that as a divorced wife or husband, you may be able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits based on your deceased spouse or ex-spouse’s earnings record?
Under Social Security’s rules, you can claim disability benefits based on your deceased husband/wife or ex-husband/wife earnings record if:
- you are at least age 50
- you were married to your ex-spouse for at least 10 years
- your ex-spouse was fully insured for SSDI benefits at the time he/she died
You cannot at this point claim disability benefits on the earnings record of a living ex-spouse.
Several years ago, I was represented a disabled ex-wife of a man who got “remarried” after separating (but not legally divorcing) my client. When we filed for disabled widow’s benefits, Social Security advised us that another “widow” had already been paid.
After proving that my client was disabled medically, I was able to document that my client was also the legal surviving widow and that the other “widow” was in fact not a legal wife. Social Security ended up paying both my client and “the other woman.”
Disabled widow claims can be tricky and usually it makes sense to hire a lawyer to assist you. If you are not fully insured for SSDI benefits yourself or if your SSDI benefit amount is less than that of your deceased spouse/ex-spouse, you will want to make sure that your benefit amounts are properly calculated.
Filed under Disabled Widow's Benefits by on Aug 16th, 2011. Comment. 
I regularly get questions from women (and some men) who think that their ex-spouse may be collecting disability benefits, but who will not cooperate when it comes to requesting auxiliary benefits for the non-custodial parent’s minor child or children.
Information about Social Security claims is confidential and SSA will not release it. How then do you find out if your ex-spouse is collecting benefits, his current address or even his Social Security number?
One way to gather this information is to use the discovery rules of the jurisdiction that issued the child support order. Litigants in state court (divorce) litigation can use the rules of discovery that apply in every state. Under these rules, you can ask the other party (you “ex”) questions (called interrogatories) and you can demand that he produce documents (requests for production of documents).
State court judges enforce discovery requests using the power of contempt – in other words, your ex can be incarcerated if he does not cooperate.
While using discovery to gather information about your ex-spouse is effective, it can also be expensive and may require the assistance of a private lawyer. However, many family law courts have web sites with sample interrogatories and requests for production of documents so, in theory at least, you can engage in discovery on your own.
Another way to gather information about your ex-spouse is to use private investigation tools readily available on the Internet. I did a quick Google search and ran across people finder sites like Publicpeoplefinder.com or iinfosearch.com, which charge $100 or less. I have no personal experience with these particular companies and, as always when buying something online, buyer beware.
Filed under Social Security Disability Benefits and Child Support by on Aug 25th, 2011. 1 Comment.
Jonathan Ginsberg