I have received a spousal death benefit in the form of a monthly pension from the UK for the last 20 or so years which augments my income and upon which I pay US taxes. I am a US citizen and I am now about to qualify for my own Social Security benefit which I have qualified for (10 years/40 quarters minimum) based on my own work record here in the USA since 1976. I am told that as a recipient of a foreign pension (even perhaps as a survivor benefit), I may be subject to a REDUCTION in my SS benefit under WEP or GPO. Is this accurate. Please help. Thank you.

Hi Larry

Hello,
I will be receiving CPP and OAS from Canada. Before moving to Canada I worked in US for 28 yrs. Normally I would not be eligible for OAS because I have been in Canada for 19 yrs and you need 20 yrs to be eligible for OAS. However, because of the totalization agreement with the US and Canada I can count one of my US years to be eligible for OAS. Because I am using the totalization agreement for OAS but not CPP does WEP sill apply to me? Or, do they only consider CPP eligibility requirements for WEP in which I do not need to use the totalization agreement.

I am Canadian, living in U.S.A. with Permanent Residence status. I have never worked in the US. We have lived here since 1996. My husband (who is now naturalized) has contributed to SS for 27 years (so far). We know that if he were to retire before FRA (3 years from now), and collects CPP, his benefits will be reduced by WEP. I am entitled to spousal benefits. I am collecting a small CPP. Will "my" CPP cause my "spousal benefits" to be reduced by WEP? If so, by what percentage?

I have earned a Social Security benefit from 25 years active duty in the Air Force. I have also earned a California State Teacher's Retirement benefit (non-SS covered). Normally my SS would be reduced by the Windfall Elimination Provision, but I am covered by the exception "You’re a federal worker first hired after December 31, 1983" (by just a couple of months, whew!) However, I am planning to go back to work for a couple of years in a non-government SS-covered job -- will that cancel my WEP exception? This is truly a $50,000 question!

I’m 63 years old and a retired public school teacher. How can I determine my Social Security benefits if I currently have an STRS pension? It is my understanding that due to STRS, I will only receive a portion of my earned benefits.

Just discovered craziness in WEP and GPO. It's bad enough that it's there, but it's slightly worse than I thought. Did you know that WEP and GPO use a different actuarial values for converting a lump sum payment to a monthly payment amount?

Just crazy - I was trying to figure out why when my wife filed for spousal benefit (when I started my SS) the GPO offset was higher than I was calculating. It turns out and age 66 lump sum paid in 2022 uses 174.6 as the divisor to calculate WEP monthly pension amount BUT the GPO monthly pension amount uses 140.1 as the divisor.

When can Social Security deduct a person’s WEP? I retired from my local school system, after working as a school custodian for 9 years, at the age of 69 in November 2015. When I retired I received a small School Employees Retirement System (SERS) pension. Social Security deducted the WEP penalty in February 2008 when I turned 62. I was not eligible to participate in the SERS program until November of 2011. They claim the WEP must be deducted before COLA or any other credits are calculated. This caused my earn cola (Dec.

I have a small $600 pension from Maine. I will be subject to WEP. In my case it will be half of the pension amount. I have considered rolling the pension into a IRA before reaching retirement then I would not be subject to WEP. What are your thoughts? Also does the calculator have this option? lastly the value of the money in the pension is about 40,000.00 so would not generate a large monthly amount.

My wife is 66 1/5 years old and qualifies for ~$1300 per month social security benefits based on previous employment. Not sure how many years she has worked but may be ~20 years. The last 5 years she has worked part time for a California Community College and falls under CALSTRS.

We believe she is vested and based on her ~$25,000 per year income we believe she would receive ~$210 from the non-covered pension.

Based on the WEB rules will her reduction be limited to 1/2 of the $210 pension ($105) or will her Social Security be reduced by $558?

Thank you,