If you are the spouse of someone who worked but you stayed home, do you collect social security benefits in retirement if your spouse dies or are they the only one that gets benefits? What if your spouse dies before retirment age at say 59 or so, do you collect anything when your spouse would’ve turned 65 or do you collect nothing?
In a nutshell, yes, there are SS benefits for non-working surviving spouses of workers.
Here is all the technical info -
The link above is to the Program Operations Manuals, which, although accurate, have much more information than you really need. You might get faster answers at The SSA Website .
You can also get answers by simply calling your local Social Security Branch Office.