Under the proposed changes to social security, would a wife born in
1951 be able, upon the death of her husband born in 1950, to draw 1/2
of his social security benefits, as the present law allows?  Or would
the proposed changes require her to forfeit that benefit since she was
born in 1951, one year after the "proposed cut-off" birth year for the
present system?

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Clarification of Question by pilgrimintx-ga on 06 Mar 2005 06:10 PST

While you post all over this site, this particular question you have
misunderstood.  I am asking under the PROPOSED Social Security
changes.  That is, President Bush has already presented a package.  If
you are unfamiliar with the contents of that package, please do not
post to my question.

The simple answer is that there is no way to know.

There is no new SS bill yet and even if there were, it would get
modified a hundred times even if it gets passed.

The bottom line is what it always is, SS can be changed by the govt at
the drop of a hat with no prior notice.

I've been trying to keep up to date on everything about the social
security issue, and to my knowledge the Bush proposal doesn't cover
your question.

The closest relevance is that Bush said that the social security
reform would not affect the husband born in 1950.  Since his proposal
isn't a bill (as Silicon mentioned), the details are not laid out yet.
 No one (perhaps not even Bush) knows the answer to your question.

My best guess is that the full 50% would still be given to the wife. 
Since the husband was born before the cutoff, his benefits will not be
changed and the 50% benefit for the wife is part of his benefits.

Sorry to not give a firm answer, but there doesn't seem to be a firm
answer available since Bush's proposal is simply an idea at this time
that doesn't give alot of specifics.

contrary to what you may think, there is no detailed proposal from
Bush and, even if there were, it's not going to pass the senate
looking anything like it will if/when he does make a concrete
proposal.

The closest you can come at the moment is
http://democrats.senate.gov/ss/calc.html

For that absolute final word on the plan, simply look at 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/social-security/

It's all smoke and mirrors at the moment.

You can see guesses about what the plan might be and what it might mean at
http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/socialsec/