Protecting Our Widows and Widowers in Retirement Act

Key Points

• Under current law, when one spouse in a two-income couple dies, the survivor typically keeps only the larger of the two Social Security checks and loses the other entirely, often causing a big income drop.
• This bill lets widows and widowers choose to receive 75 percent of the combined total of their own benefit plus their late spouse's primary insurance amount, instead of losing one check completely.
• To keep costs in check, the new combined benefit is capped at what a hypothetical worker earning about one-third above the national average wage would receive.
• The bill protects Supplemental Security Income recipients so that a bigger Social Security check under the new formula won't cause them to lose SSI eligibility or payments.
• If enacted, the changes would apply to survivor benefit payments starting after December 2026, meaning checks could increase beginning in January 2027.