Sifting ThroughThe Rules For Benefits

Q. - Soon I will be released from my present job because of restructuring of the company. I will be eligible for unemployment benefits. Can I apply for my Social Security benefits and collect from both unemployment and Social Security until I find another job? I am 63 years old.

K.B., Spring Hill

A. - Since you are at least 62 years of age, you may apply for your Social Security benefits if you have worked a total of 10 years in jobs in which you have paid Social Security taxes. The amount of your benefit will be reduced from the amount you would be entitled to if you waited until you were 66 years old. The reduction would be 5/9ths of one percent for each month you were younger than 66 when you apply for benefits.

The unemployment benefits would not affect your Social Security benefits. However, if you do find another job and begin work before age 65, your benefit would be reduced by $1 for every $2 you earned above $12,960 a year. If you continue to work after age 66, your benefit would be reduced by $1 for every $3 you earned above $34,440 until you reach age 70. After that, there is no reduction beyond the original reduction because of taking benefits early.

Q. - I am a widower considering marriage to a widowed friend. One possible obstacle is the question of how marriage would affect her income. She receives a small amount from her first husband's mining pension. She also receives a small amount from his black lung disability payments a widow's benefit from Social Security.

We wonder what would happen to those funds should we marry.

D.W., Brooksville

A. - When a woman who is receiving a widow's Social Security benefit and is at least 60 years old remarries, she does not lose her widow's benefit. After a year of marriage, she would be entitled to a spouse's benefit based on her new husband's benefit if that amount is greater than what she is receiving in her widow's benefit.

A disability benefit ends at age 65 when it converts to Social Security retirement benefit.

The pension may or may not continue. It should be easy to check the terms.

Q. - Recently you told a reader, who is much younger than 65, that, since she had received disability payments for two years, she qualified for Medicare and did not need her expensive COBRA insurance.

Since Medicare does not cover the entire cost of medical care, don't you have to have co-insurance to cover the balance/and wouldn't COBRA take care of that balance?

Mrs. W.O'N., Lighthouse Point

A. - While Medicare pays only about 80 percent of covered medical costs,

You are required to have supplemental insurance. You can pay the difference out of pocket. Depending on circumstances, that may be cheaper than buying additional insurance.

COBRA - which is a continuation (at your own expense) of the group insurance from a job you no longer hold - is limited to 18 months and often is quite expensive.

Q. - My wife, who is 67, was drawing Social Security benefits from the time she was 62. Since that amount was so much lower than my benefit, Social Security granted her a higher amount, based on my work record.

Since I am much older than she and probably will precede her in death, how will this affect what she draws then?

M.M., Spring Hill

A. - Because your wife is at least 66 years of age, she would be entitled to a widow's benefit from Social Security. That amount would be equal to your present benefit. This would not be in addition to what she now receives but, in effect, will replace it.