5 Social Security Rules Costing Surviving Spouses Thousands Every Year

When your spouse dies, Social Security is probably the last thing on your mind. And that’s why so many survivors make costly mistakes with their benefits. More than 3.8 million widows and widowers were collecting survivor benefits as of September 2025. But a huge number of them claimed the wrong benefit at the wrong time — and they’ll never get that money back. Before I explain why and what to…