Supplemental Security Income

• The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program pays disability benefits for individuals who are blind, disabled or older than 65 years of age. One of the requirements you have to meet to qualify to receive SSI benefits is to have low income or no income at all. At the time pf publication, the allowable income for SSI eligibility is lower than $1,000 per month. If you qualify to receive these benefits, you receive monthly payments that you can use to pay for your expenses. The maximum federal benefit amount is $674 for individuals and $1,011 for couples.
  
  

SSI and Survivors

• If you are a surviving ex-spouse, you may also be eligible to receive SSI benefits if you meet all requirements for eligibility. However, only being a surviving ex-spouse does not guarantee your eligibility and does not relate to whether or not you can receive SSI benefits. SSI eligibility is personal and based on your own conditions. The only family requirement that the Social Security office considers to determine your eligibility is your living spouse's income in addition to your personal income.
  
  

Survivors Benefits

• Survivors benefits is the Social Security program that pays benefits to surviving family members. To be eligible to receive survivors benefits, you must have a direct deceased family member, such as a spouse or parent, who paid Social Security tax for at least 10 years, or less if she died at a young age. These benefits are paid based on the deceased worker's average lifetime earnings, which the Social Security office determines based on the Social Security tax this individual has paid in all of her years of work.
  
  

Ex-spouse and Survivors

• If you are a surviving ex-spouse, you might be able to get survivors benefits under certain circumstances. You can receive these benefits as a surviving ex-spouse if your marriage to the deceased worker lasted at least 10 years. You can receive benefits if you are older than 60 years of age, or older than 50 years of age if you are disabled. If you take care of your natural or legally adopted disabled child who is younger than age 16 and is also the child of your deceased spouse, you qualify to receive these benefits at any age. Your benefits as a surviving ex-spouse do not reduce the benefits other surviving family members are eligible to receive. However, if you start receiving these benefits because you take care of your disabled child, your benefits do reduce other family members' benefits.