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You should look into the GPO: Government Pension Offset law. I'm not as familiar with it as with WEP but I'm pretty sure that if you are subject to WEP, the "spousal provision" is reduced by GPO.
QUOTE from Google: How do I calculate Government Pension Offset?
The Government Pension Offset
The reduction is 2/3 of your pension amount! For example, if your pension is $3,000, the SSA will subtract nearly $2,000 from any spousal or survivor benefits before you are paid. This large reduction often completely wipes out any benefit for which you are eligible.
You should look into the GPO: Government Pension Offset law. I'm not as familiar with it as with WEP but I'm pretty sure that if you are subject to WEP, the "spousal provision" is reduced by GPO.
QUOTE from Google: How do I calculate Government Pension Offset?
The Government Pension Offset
The reduction is 2/3 of your pension amount! For example, if your pension is $3,000, the SSA will subtract nearly $2,000 from any spousal or survivor benefits before you are paid. This large reduction often completely wipes out any benefit for which you are eligible.
Thanks for the info. We meet with our advisor this morning, and we'll ask.
Over the last few years, as we've entered the "approach pattern" to retirement so to speak, I've brought up WEP with various people in the biz. My wife worked private sector so they're geared toward that, not teachers with pensions. For example, they see a lot of 401K for business people, not 403B for educators, so we would get "I'll look into it." This current guy didn't miss a beat and he brought up WEP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nausikaa
While you are alive your spouse with undergo WEP. If you die, she will not be subject to WEP.
I'm not tracking. Are you saying that the government will take into account my non social security pension when calculating her social security retirement?
If you had 35 years paying into SS you would not be WEP’d. You did not, Your choice.
I worked in UK and Germany in my youth, but I still had 35 years of SS. Therefore not WEP’d.
I believe you are confusing 2 different things - your working overseas would not count for SS or WEP. WEP has to do with collecting a pension without paying into SS - mostly teachers, local, state or federal government workers with government pensions. There is no WEP reduction if you work 30 years paying into SS and much reduced WEP reduction between 20 and 30 years.
I believe you are confusing 2 different things - working overseas would not count for SS or WEP. WEP has to do with work in the US without paying for SS - mostly teachers, local, state or federal government workers with government pensions. There is no WEP reduction if you work 30 years paying into SS and much reduced WEP reduction between 20 and 30 years.
Yes, foreign employment can count. See https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf
The first paragraph says "Such an employer may be a government agency or an employer in another country"
I was talking about the specific situation here. They were obviously confusing 2 issues. They would need to get an overseas pension due to their work and the OPs work as a teen overseas is not going to qualify them for a pension that is subject to WEP. They also have over 35 years of SS (more than 30) so WEP would not apply anyway.
Really WEP only applies to foreign pension income if certain conditions are met and it gets complicated but the quick explanation is that the pension has to be based on their work record and not just because they lived there - if they had a pension that was substantial after working as a teen, it is not based on work record, so it would not be subject to WEP.
the federal government changed retirements plans from the CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) to the FERS (Federal Employees Retirement system) in 1984. Pensions were much more generous under the CSRS than the FERS plan is and that's where the idea of unfairness began. They have a good argument it's unfair without the WEP.
Our advisor has a social security person who will look into those questions for us.
I seem to recall that it's possible to put in enough years (30?) of SS work and pension work to collect both. Say you started work at age 16 and did that for 30 years. For the pension we had rule of 80 (age + experience =80? You get 100% of your pension). You start teaching at age 46. 80-46=34. Divide by 2. Teach till you're 63, you have 17 years experience, rule of 80 and you've got it. But now, I think they've gone to rule of 85, so 85-46=39, divide by 2, 19.5 years...you could retire at age 65.5 or so.
Or of course you could start work at age 16, work 6 years...then teach for the number needed...then do more social security work to hit your thirty years.
Last edited by ILTXwhatnext; 10-08-2022 at 05:51 AM..
Reason: misspelling
My wife and I both collect social security and as she has a small state pension her social security is Wep'd.
The pension does provide for the survivor so should she die I would receive her pension.
Would I be Wep'd?
Survivor benefits are not subject to WEP; From SSA.gov - "WEP does not affect benefits for your survivors."
From AARP - "When the worker dies, the widow's or widower's survivor benefit is based on the deceased's benefit as determined by the standard Social Security formula, without any reduction for the WEP."
On the other hand, your wife's ability to use your SS survivor benefits could be reduced to zero by GPO. She may be better off staying with WEP than taking your SS survivor benefits - would need to look at it both ways. From AARP
"However, if the surviving spouse draws a pension based on their own earnings from a government job where they did not pay into Social Security, their survivor benefits could be affected by another regulation, the Government Pension Offset (GPO). This rule reduces Social Security spousal or survivor benefits by two-thirds of the amount of the government pension received."
The wife called social security to make an appointment, but it seems they don't do that. It's more of a DMV flavor, wherein you show up, wait, hope. If they don't get to you by closing, come back tomorrow.
She talked to someone in DC (or wherever they route such calls) who knew something about it. Said person told her they wouldn't go into WEP at a local facility anyway. As far as we can tell, her social security won't be affected when she starts getting it. My pension doesn't impact that at all. It's only when one of us dies. The survivor can't collect both without getting WEPed. My pension and her SS are about the same. We're thinking the survivor will get 2/3 of what we're drawing prior to someone taking the dirt nap.
The thing I mentioned earlier about the spousal benefit? Social security says that you can't claim anything on spouse's retirement until YOU are FRA.
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WEP with foreign income
