She can check online for her lifetime earnings record according to Social Security Administration. Have her go to Social Security/My Account to create access to her records. Did 1st husband ever do anything to dissolve their marriage?

She is entitled to get half of her husbands SS for sure, which is what I get since I never got my own, did not work long enough.

As long as the woman gave her employers her correct/legal Social Security number, and as long as she had SS taxes withheld from every paycheck, she should be entitled to her own SS benefits. She can create her own "My SSA" account on the SSA.gov web site and check to see what it says. It will show what her estimated monthly benefit would be at age 62, at age 66, and at age 70 (assuming 66 is her "full retirement age" by SS standards).

If she doesn't have enough of her own earnings to get a decent monthly payment, she would be entitled to one-half of her LEGAL HUSBAND's monthly benefit amount.

She should contact a lawyer because if she was legally married to first man and then went through another wedding ceremony she is a bigamist.There's a lot of legal questions not just social security questions.

Bigamist.

I believe she would only be entitled to half of her legal/first husbands SS if they were married a minimum of 10 years.

Magner69 -- if they are still legally married, as appears to be stated in the OP, then they've been married for more than 30 years.

That is a mess, and the people who say "marriage is just a piece of paper" should be made to read it and think it through. Marriage is protection /responsibilities for you and your children. My thoughts:

- I agree that it matters how long she was married to the first husband; she'd have to prove that she was married to him for X number of years to qualify for his Social Security. I'd assume he would not look kindly upon her "tagging onto" his retirement benefits, and he can probably prove that they haven't been living together all these years. If he chooses to fight this, he probably can prevent her from collecting any of his benefits.

- If she gave her real Social Security number to her employers, the name she used will probably be irrelevant; however, as her work history is skimpy, her Social Security check will be small.

- Depending upon the state in which they live, the woman and her new husband may be considered to be married through "common law". I assume she can prove she's been living with this man as if they were husband and wife? Meaning, they've made major purchases together, her name is on the household bills?

- Though they were separated, the second child may legally belong to the first husband. No, really, hear me out: My no-good cousin was messing around with a woman who was separated from her husband (but couldn't afford the paperwork to divorce him). She became pregnant -- probably my cousin's baby, but with these two, who knows? When the child was born, she HAD TO list her legal husband as the child's father, even though no one believed he was the biological father. None of them seemed to care about this much and considered it just a bit of a joke -- but now that "real husband" 's name is on the birth certificate, she could go after him for child support.

- Does the second "husband" have a will? If not, that should become a priority.

I think your friend needs a lawyer.

Aha!!! I knew my mind was still intact but for the life of me I could not find this posting. You can't believe how many times I have searched for it so I would beg forgiveness for not returning to thank you for replies.

Obviously I did not explain that situation very well but you can imagine my shock.

Yes, she is still married to the first guy and never married the second one. She only TOLD people they were married. And then they had a child together. smh. I can not look her daughter in the eye knowing that her mother and father are not married and I hold a secret that should be no secret to her.

My friend I believe to be sorry for confiding in me since she has not broached the subject again. She was in deep despair and sick with worry for her "husband" and his illness. He is still not doing well.

I am not sure if she has gotten any answers to the questions I posed above and I'm not about to ask. It just makes me sad thinking again about it.

LovingSpring -- I am going to paste in part of the statement made by MrsPete, then I will respond. She said, "I agree that it matters how long she was married to the first husband; she'd have to prove that she was married to him for X number of years to qualify for his Social Security. I'd assume he would not look kindly upon her "tagging onto" his retirement benefits, and he can probably prove that they haven't been living together all these years. If he chooses to fight this, he probably can prevent her from collecting any of his benefits."

The length of time of the marriage applies depending on the circumstances of the spousal claim. Since in your friend's case it is the wife who wants to file a claim, I will refer to "she" and/or "the wife" to indicate your friend.

If the spouses are divorced: The marriage must have lasted a minimum of 10 years, and she (the person claiming the spousal benefit) must not be remarried and both spouses must be at least 62 years old. They must have been divorced a minimum of two years. If she did remarry, that later marriage must have ended (divorce, annulment, or death) before she can claim spousal benefits from a previous husband.

If the husband has died: She (the person claiming the spousal benefits) must have been legally married to her husband at the time of his death, and the marriage must have lasted at least 9 months (not a day less) immediately prior to the date of death unless one of the two following conditions are met: (1) it was an accidental death, or (2) he died in the line of duty while actively serving in a uniformed service.

If the spouses are still legally married: The spouses must be legally married and must have been married for at least one continuous year prior to the day before the date the application for spousal benefits is filed. (Sounds confusing, but it's not -- read it slowly.) Social Security does NOT differentiate between married-and-living-together and married-but-not-living-together. If you are legally married, you are legally married for the SSA's purposes even if you live in different countries. So MrsPete's statement that the husband "probably can prevent her from collecting any of his benefits" because they haven't been together for years is incorrect.

This applies equally both to spouses who are still married and to divorced spouses: Whatever the amount of spousal benefits she receives, those spousal benefits do not affect the amount of the benefits that he will receive. So your friend's legal husband will NOT have his benefit amount reduced if she receives spousal benefits.

If they are legally married, she cannot receive spousal benefits unless her husband has already filed to receive his own benefits. So, if the husband is not yet 70 and wants to wait until age 70 to start collecting to maximize his benefit, this is the only way he can "prevent her from collecting." He could "file and suspend" which would allow her to begin collecting spousal benefits while still allowing his benefit to maximize, but he, obviously, would have to be willing to do this and would be aware that she is collecting benefits based on his earnings.

If they are divorced (and have been for at least two years), her ex-husband won't even know that she has filed for, or is receiving, spousal benefits based on his earnings.

Has to make one wonder what Filing Status your friend used before she "married" the second "husband" and also after they "married." How about her original husband's filing status over the years.

Lots of "answers" here that do not address the fact if the woman really was "married" to the original husband for 30+ years for SS purposes.

SaltiDawg, you obviously did not read my postings, especially the one directly before yours.

Oh, I read your postings - lots of copy and paste.

(I took whole paragraphs of yours and pasted them into Google and got hits. Not sure why you'd think the OP could not Google? lol )

SaltiDawg, you can put "bullshit" into a Google search and get hits. Means nothing. Are you alleging that I copied, WORD FOR WORD whole paragraphs from another site?

My married female relative ran off with a married male neighbor. The married male neighbor did not get a divorce but my married female relative did. They lived together for 34 years status quo. When the married male neighbor died the wife of the married male neighbor received his social security, even though they had not been together for 34 years.

akarinz -- fits perfectly into the information that I had posted Friday at 6:23 p.m.

SaltiDawg -- For your information, I did not copy/paste anything I wrote. Perhaps your IQ isn't high enough to simply know the information and be able to intelligently put it down in written form. Mine is.