My husband is a retired postal worker and dies not receive social security. Is he entitled to my social security?

Hi,

The short answer is probably not. Your husband may be technically eligible for benefits on your record if he's at least age 62 and if you're drawing your benefits, but assuming that your husband's receiving a civil service pension and if he didn't pay Social Security taxes on his earnings from the government then any Social Security spousal or survivor benefits that he would otherwise qualify for would almost certainly be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of his civil service pension. That's because of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. For more information about GPO, refer to the following Social Security publication: (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

Therefore, if your husband filed for spousal benefits his spousal benefit rate would likely be reduced to zero assuming that his civil service pension amount is more than roughly 3/4ths as much as your full retirement age Social Security benefit rate. For example, say that your full retirement age rate, or primary insurance amount (PIA) is $2000. Your husband's unreduced spousal rate would then be $1000, or 50% of your PIA. However, if your husband's civil service pension was more than $1500 in this example, the spousal benefit payable to him would be zero (i.e. 2/3rds of $1500 - $1000 = $0).

If your husband applies for spousal benefits and if he meets the requirements for those benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.03/handbook-0305.html), Social Security would approve his claim but wouldn't actually pay him any cash benefits if GPO causes his spousal rate to be reduced to zero. He could still potentially qualify for premium free Part A of Medicare on your record at age 65, though, even if he's only technically entitled as a spouse on your account.

Best, Jerry