Can a Spousal Benefit (Social Security) offset a Long Term Disability payments? My wife is 62 and I am 67. My wife is on both LTD and Social Security Disability and has been for the last 15 years. I am still working and in 2016 I did a file and suspend on-line for Social Security Benefit thinking that it might help my wife in some way. The Social Security office called me and acknowledge receipt of my request and then asked why. When I told them they looked up my wife and said she was making more than half of what I would pull from Social Security so they said it didn't make any since. However, they pointed out that I could apply and receive a Spousal Benefit since my wife was already on Social Security and I had reached my Full Retirement age of 66. They even said they would retroactive it back to my birth date so I said yes. We are now getting notice from my wife's long term disability company (Prudential) that the spousal benefit I was taking is an offset to my wife's long term disability and they are also expecting back-pay to the date I started taking it. This doesn't seem reasonable to me but I thought I would ask the expert.

Hi,

It doesn't sound fair to me either, but the LTD insurance company can do whatever the terms of your wife's policy allows them to do. If her policy says that her LTD payments can be offset not only by her Social Security benefits, but also by any auxiliary benefits payable on her record, then what they're telling you is probably accurate.

Best, Jerry