I turned 66 last month and my current husband of 26 years is 74. He is collecting most of his benefits from OPERS and a small portion ($585) from Social Security (SS). I am working and plan to collect my SS benefits at 70. I collect a small benefit ($44) from my ex husband's railroad benefit. I also worked in the OPERS system about 5 years and received a lump sum payment (not sure if it was my contribution only). I have worked under the SS system for over 30 years so I think it would eliminate the WEP calculation. Should I start collecting my current husband's spousal benefit? He receives $580. Or should we wait until I turn 70 and he collect spousal benefits from my work record? My benefit would be $2444 but because he is collecting from OPERS would his 1/2 be further reduced to 2/3? We are trying to maximize our SS. Thank You.

Hi,

Those aren't mutually exclusive propositions. In other words, you could file just for spousal benefits on your husband's record now, and then your husband could potentially apply for spousal benefits when you file on your own record at age 70. However, your husband may not be able to receive spousal benefits due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

For example, say your full retirement age rate (PIA) is $2444 and your husband's PIA is $585. His unreduced spousal rate in that case would be $637 (i.e. 50% of your PIA minus his own PIA). But, since he is receiving a non-covered government pension, his spousal rate would likely be reduced by 2/3rds of the amount of his government pension. So, if his government pension was more than $955 in this example, his spousal rate would be reduced to zero.

If you plan to wait until age 70 to file for your own retirement benefits, it would almost certainly be advantageous for you to file a restricted application just for spousal benefits now so that you can receive 4 years of spousal benefits before switching to your own record. You should strongly consider using the maximization software to determine your optimal filing strategy.

Best, Jerry