R was a female worker who became entitled to social security disability insurance benefits in the amount of $65.30 per month. She also began receiving worker’s compensation benefits. The workers comp benefits were of such an amount that, after the offset of her disability benefits required by law, her social security disability benefits were reduced to zero.
When R attained age 60 she applied for social security widow’s benefits based on her deceased husband’s earnings record. The amount of her widow’s benefits was $64.60, which was less than the amount of her social security disability benefit.
This posed a bit of a conundrum for R. The law required her widow’s benefits to be reduced by the amount of her social security disability benefit before the work comp reduction. Because the disability benefit before the offset was higher than the widow’s benefit, the widow’s benefit was reduced to zero. Thus, both of R’s social security benefits were reduced to zero; the disability benefit because of the work comp offset and the widow’s benefit because of the reduction for the disability benefit.
Luckily for R, however, the law allowed her to withdraw her application for social security disability benefits and her application was then treated as if it had never been filed. This allowed her to receive her widow’s benefit, which was not subject to the workers comp offset, although it was reduced slightly due to her taking it before her age 62 (widow’s benefits were reduced by 5/9 of one percent for each of the twenty-four months before R attained age 62).
Thus, R was able to receive $56 per month.
Se Social Security Ruling (SSR) 69-24.