The Importance of Seeking Social Security Survivor's Benefits
Pictured: Helen Thornton (at right), one of the plaintiffs who challenged the denial of Social Security survivor’s benefits, and at left with her partner, Marge Brown.Same-sex spouses who’d been unable to marry because of discriminatory laws won the right to Social Security survivor’s benefits last year, but activists are still trying to get the word out to them.“Given the sheer amount of time that marriage discrimination stretched across history, there are thousands of same-sex couples who were never able to marry before one partner died, and the vast majority of the surviving partners have never applied for survivor’s benefits,” Peter Renn, counsel at Lambda Legal, tells The Advocate. “Now that the pathway is finally open, they need to take action.
These monthly benefits can have a dramatic impact on people’s everyday lives.” Indeed, in August the Social Security Administration said the average monthly survivor’s benefit was about $1,250.Lambda Legal had brought class action lawsuits on behalf of surviving spouses who’d been denied the benefits.
To receive survivor’s benefits, a person must have been married for at least nine months. But because of state laws banning same-sex marriage, many people could not be married to their partner for that minimum time or could not marry them at all.
The Supreme Court finally struck down all such laws in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015.Lambda filed its suits in 2018, one representing spouses who hadn’t been married for the minimum nine months and one on behalf of those who hadn’t been able to marry at all.
