4. Receive a dependent benefit
If you have retired but still have a person in your family who relies on you (and she or he is under age 19), the dependent is entitled to up to 50 percent of your benefit.
It’s important to note that this type of benefit doesn’t decrease the amount of Social Security benefits that a parent can collect. They are practically an addition to what the family receives from Social Security.
Also, if the parent passes away when he or she was still working, dependent children can collect up to 75 percent of the worker’s benefit, which is actually calculated as a percentage of the benefit that the working parent would have received if he or she continued working until full retirement age.
