January, 2010 | Pennsylvania Family Law Blog - The Law Offices of Sheryl R. Rentz Archive
Philadelphia Police to Improve Domestic Violence Reporting (Part 1)
According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia experienced a dramatic surge in domestic murders in 2009. While the overall homicide rate in the city dropped 23%, domestic murders were up by an alarming 67%.
When a Philadelphia police officer responds to a domestic violence call, the officer does not have any information about the history of domestic violence in that home, such as the number of previous domestic abuse calls, or whether someone living there has an active restraining order. If there are no obvious signs of violence, an officer can only leave behind a business card with hotline numbers, but offer little else in the way of help to the victim. Read the rest »
Learning More About How Divorce May Influence Survivor Benefits
Financial responsibility after a divorce, particularly after the loss of a spouse or ex-spouse, is also connected to survivor benefits if a spouse or ex-spouse passes away. Our previous two blogs addressed a few important issues regarding how divorce may or may not affect your social security. We now turn our attention to whether or not an individual may collect spousal or ex-spousal survivor benefits. Generally speaking, if you are divorced, and if you remarry before the age of 60, you are not allowed to collect a survivor benefit based on the earnings of your deceased ex-spouse for the duration of that new marriage.
A few other factors that may influence whether you qualify to obtain survivor benefits relate to your age and how long your marriage lasted. For instance, you may be able to receive survivor benefits beginning at the age of 60. However it should be noted that you may be able to receive these benefits before the age of 60 if you are at least 50-years-old and disabled. Read the rest »
Understanding How Divorce May Influence Your Social Security (Part Two)
In Part Two of our blog series discussing how divorce may or may not affect your social security, we will discuss what role time and age may play in social security and divorce. Based on a recent Wall Street Journal article, it is helpful to note that an individual who has not yet arrived at his or her full retirement age may receive a percentage of the monetary gain he or she would be entitled to get at that time.
When taking into consideration the benefits you are provided by your own work earnings, what is owed to you would generally have to be less than the benefits you would be given through your spouse’s work benefits. An exception to this is that if you delay filing for Social Security until your full retirement age, you can limit the degree of your application to your ex-spouse’s benefit only. In doing this, you can also maintain accumulating credits for postponing your own retirement benefit up to the age of 70. Read the rest »
Understanding How Divorce May Influence Your Social Security (Part One)
As a Philadelphia family law attorney, I am often asked whether or not a divorce will affect social security benefits. This is a question that many individuals encounter throughout the United States, including Pennsylvania. From my experience as a divorce lawyer, and according to a Wall Street Journal article, there are a few points that may help clear up any confusion regarding social security retirement benefits based on an ex spouse’s work record.
In Part One of our blog series discussing whether or not a divorce will affect your social security, we will discuss four universal conditions that you must meet in order to obtain social security retirement benefits from your ex-spouse’s income. They are as follows: Read the rest »
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