Increase widow and widower benefits to the greater of 75 percent of combined benefits or the Primary Insurance Amount.
Increase widow and widower Social Security benefits to the greater of 75 percent of combined benefits or the Primary Insurance Amount.
Occurrences
SEC. 6. IMPROVING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS FOR WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS IN TWO-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS... such widow's insurance benefit for each month shall be equal to the greater of... the primary insurance amount... or... 75 percent of the sum of any old-age or disability insurance benefit for which the widow... is entitled... and the primary insurance amount... of such deceased individual.
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, today introduced the Protecting Our Widows and Widowers in Retirement (POWR) Act , a bill to improve financial security for widows and widowers by adjusting the way the Social Security Administration calculates insurance benefits for surviving spouses in two-income households. “The grief of losing a loved one shouldn’t be compounded by the stress of financial hardship,” said Congresswoman Sánchez. “Sadly, that’s the reality for too many surviving spouses, who can lose half their household income overnight. The POWR Act moves to fix that. After decades of hard work and paying into the system, widows and widowers deserve to keep the benefits they earned together.”
Evidence
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Congress.gov lists Linda T. Sanchez as a cosponsor. The bill's summary says it would temporarily increase widow and widower benefits in two-income households, but the latest action was referral to the Social Security Subcommittee and the bill status remained Introduced.
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Section 105 proposed widow and widower benefits equal to the greater of the deceased worker's primary insurance amount or 75 percent of the survivor's own old-age/disability benefit plus the deceased worker's primary insurance amount, effective for benefits payable in calendar years 2025 through 2034.
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SSA's current survivor-benefit page says spouses and ex-spouses can receive up to 100 percent at full survivor retirement age, and that survivor and other benefit payments are not added together.
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Congress.gov lists Linda T. Sanchez as a cosponsor. The bill was referred to subcommittees and remained at the Introduced stage, with no enacted law result.
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Section 105, titled improving benefits for widows and widowers in two-income households, proposed the same greater-of formula using the deceased worker's primary insurance amount or 75 percent of combined amounts, with temporary applicability for 2022 through 2026.
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Congress.gov shows the Social Security Fairness Act became Public Law 118-273 and eliminated the Government Pension Offset affecting some spouses, widows, and widowers with government pensions. It did not enact the 75-percent combined-benefit formula.
Assessments
The specific promised Social Security survivor-benefit formula, paying widows and widowers the greater of 75 percent of combined benefits or the worker's Primary Insurance Amount, has not been enacted. Sanchez cosponsored later Social Security 2100 bills that included closely matching language, so there was a serious claim-specific legislative effort. The enacted Social Security Fairness Act repealed GPO/WEP and may increase benefits for some surviving spouses with government pensions, but it did not establish the promised 75-percent combined-benefit formula, so the core outcome remains undelivered rather than fully or partially delivered.