Jkom is right. You cannot collect two types of checks (benefits) at once. He could "potentially" receive widower's checks only if they were more than his own retirement checks , since they were legally married for over 10 years. . Sorry if this is bad news.

Two questions and answers, copied and pasted from the Social Security Administration web site: Question How long must you be married to a spouse to collect benefits when the spouse dies? Answer A person can qualify for widow's or widower's benefits if he or she was married to the deceased worker for at least the 9 months just before the worker died. (A surviving divorced spouse must have been married to the worker for 10 years immediately before the date the final divorce became effective.) The 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement is waived if the insured person's death was accidental or if it occurred in the line of duty while he or she was a member of a uniformed service serving on active duty or if the widow(er) who was married to the insured person at the time of the insured's death was previously married to and divorced from him or her and the previous marriage had lasted 9 months; or if the worker was precluded from divorcing a prior institutionalized spouse under State law and married the widow(er) claimant within 60 days after the prior spouse's death. The first three of these exceptions to the 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement do not apply if at the time of the marriage the worker could not reasonably have been expected to live for 9 months. The insured person's death is defined as accidental only if he or she received bodily injuries through violent, external, and accidental means and, as a direct result of the bodily injuries and independent of all other causes, died within 3 months after the day on which the injuries were received. AS an alternative to the 9-month duration-of-marriage requirement and exceptions, a claimant may qualify as the worker's widow(er) if he or she:  Is the biological parent of the worker's biological child;  While married to the worker, legally adopted his/her child before the child attained age 18;  Is the parent of a child who was legally adopted by the worker while married to the claimant and before the child attained age 18; or  Was married to the worker at the time both of them legally adopted a child under age 18. Question If I receive widow's benefits and remarry, how does this affect my benefits? Answer In general, you cannot receive survivors benefits if you remarry before the age of 60 unless the latter marriage ends, whether by death, divorce, or annulment. If you remarry after age 60 (50 if disabled), you can still collect benefits on your former spouse's record. When you reach age 62 or older, you may get retirement benefits on the record of your new spouse if they are higher. Your remarriage would have no effect on the benefits being paid to your children.

Some of these rules don't make sense to me. It sure seems like there are a lot of ways to get far more social security benefits than were ever paid in. I don't blame people for taking advantage of the rules in place but I sure don't understand them. I understand and agree with survivor benefits but I really don't understand how a non-working spouse can get half of the working spouses benefits despite never paying in. It seems that it should be distributed at a household level based on household income if the marriage is maintained into retirement. It also doesn't make sense to me that multiple ex's can all collect the same amount. I don't understand how the system can sustain itself by paying out so much more than was contributed. But I guess that's why it's supposedly going bankrupt. If I'm wrong about any of these, please correct me as I would love to know the truth. My research has only shown me tips and tricks to maximizing benefits. I've been paying social security for 10 years and have another 35 to go. I really wish it were optional because I am pretty sure I will never see this money again.

It is prorated.