My husband worked most of his career with the federal government, not paying into SS. He does, however, have enough credits to claim a small amount of SS benefits. I am retiring in March, 2023 at age 70. What are our options? Can he claim spousal benefits or file on his own without it affecting his civil service pension? He is 75 years old and not working. Thank you!

Hi. First of all, if your husband has at least 40 quarters (QC) of Social Security coverage and if he hasn't yet applied for Social Security retirement benefits he should probably apply immediately. Claiming Social Security retirement benefits won't have any adverse effect on your husband's federal civil service pension, and there is no advantage to waiting past age 70 to claim Social Security retirement benefits.

There is a provision called the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) that will likely reduce your husband's Social Security retirement benefit rate, but WEP never reduces a person's Social Security retirement benefit rate to zero (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf). Therefore, assuming your husband does have at least 40 quarters (QC) of Social Security coverage, it sounds like he should apply for Social Security retirement benefits as soon as possible if he hasn't already done so.

Your husband could also apply for spousal benefits when you apply for your benefits, but due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision it's unlikely that he could be paid any spousal benefits. GPO can cause a person's spousal benefit to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of any government pensions they receive that are based on their work for a governmental agency in the U.S. where their earnings were exempt from Social Security taxes (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). So, unless your husband's spousal benefit rate would amount to more than 2/3rds of the amount of his civil service pension, his spousal benefit rate would likely be reduced to zero. If your husband does qualify for any spousal benefits, though, it won't have any adverse effect on his civil service pension.

Our software can handle computations involving both WEP and GPO, so you and your husband should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully compare and analyze all of your options so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry