My mother says, "I originally received Soc Sec benefits as a survivor, not based on my own earnings".
Could that be right?!
I am 350 miles away, so I do not have access to her records. I rely on her to fish out the documents I request. But as you know, GIGO.
I asked her to send me the last "Your Social Security Statement" that she might have gotten. The above statement was her reply. Klunk!
(Is it possible that she does not have a YSSS? I don't know when the SSA started sending YSSSes.)
Facts....
My mother is now 82 years old. Midlife, she worked full-time as a teacher for many years. Earlier in life, she held full-time positions on a local newspaper. So she "must" have an earnings record of her own. I don't know how many years that covers. That is why I asked for the YSSS document.
My father died a few years ago at age 79. Their ages differed by about 3 years. During his lifetime, he worked in his own law and CPA firm for at least 35 years. Before that, he worked full-time in other firms for many years. He probably had earnings history even before that; but I don't believe any of that is relevant.
Some time after my father's death, my mother incorrectly reported self-employment income for a one-time royalty agreement. Her CPA agreed that that was a mistake under the circumstances, so he filed an amended return, shifting the self-employment income to royalty income and eliminating the self-employment income altogether. As a result, the IRS sent a notification that the self-employment would be reduced to zero for that year.
I am trying to determine if that reduction will affect her Soc Sec benefits adversely, based on the 35-year formula that the SSA uses.
I suspect not, even if her Soc Sec benefits are based, at least in part, on her own earnings. Certainly not if her Soc Sec benefits are based entirely on her as a survivor.
Anyway, I think my question is independent of those facts. I simply want to know: if a person has earnings of their own, and they are a survivor of a person who had earnings of their own, are the (surviving) person's benefits based on the deceased person's earnings alone, or on some combination of their earnings, or something else altogether?
If I omitted some relevant facts, what additional facts are needed in order to answer my question?
I will continue to search my own SSA documents, ssa.gov and fairmark.com for the answer. I am "sure" I read about this somewhere, but it went in one eye and out the other :-). In the meantime, I thought someone here might offer a simple answer. And a specific pointer would be helpful.