I have a teachers retirement pension from California. I divorced my husband after 35 years of marriage and I have never remarried. I began collecting my teachers pension in 1996 and it will continue for the rest of my life. My ex-husband who worked in the private sector his whole life recently passed away. His wages throughout his work life were subject to social security withholding and would have been defined as highly compensated. Can I now claim social security based and my ex-husbands earnings and be exempted from the windfall elimination provisions of social security.

If I can retire at 65 from a Public Employees Benefit Plan and don't wish to file for Social Security until 66 yrs and 2 months, can I collect all moneys in the PERS account until I file for Social Security? I will actually file for my ex-husbands Social Security as he made more than me during prime earning years.

Obviously this seems really unfair, because I worked and earned both Social Security and PERS, but I believe this to be true. What percentage and/or how do they decide what amount to be given to the retiree also for both SS and PERS?

Larry thanks for the earlier advice on my wife and her options for SS since she is receiving benefits from a TRS retirement pension. As a follow up question is will my SS benefits be affected since we took the payout until we are both deceased in the case of her passing away before me? Thanks Pete

Hi Pete,

No. Your Social Security benefits would not be affected by any TRS pension payments that your wife receives, nor would it affect your Social Security benefits if you were to receive spousal or survivor benefits from your wife's TRS pension plan.

Larry, I am 61 (8/16/56) and a high wage earner. Current SS statement has me at 70 receiving a little over $3000 a month but I intent to continue to work till 66 in my current high income job. I then intent to work part time to extend to 70 receiving SS benefits. My Wife is 59 (9/7/59) and has been retired from her 30 plus years of teaching since 2014. She has been receiving full TRS retirement pension since then and we opted for the lifetime payout till we are both dead.

Hi Larry...I became disabled (paraplegia) back in 1983 and started collecting SSDI benefits shortly after. I eventually started teaching, although on a partial basis due to ongoing medical problems. Eventually, I accumulated enough service credit from teaching that I was able to apply/receive a disability retirement. My disability retirement is much smaller than what was expected, and due to my partial ability to teach through the full year of any of school year.

Dear Larry, early in my adult life, age 27, I had a disabling condition, and went on SSDI, which continued for 24 years. I went through SSA's Ticket to Work (TTW) program and have became gainfully employed through acquiring a different degree than I previously had. I worked a position that paid into SS for 2 additional years, until 2013, when I took a job a government job for The State of Ohio.

Dear Larry,
My husband had another job before he worked for a city college. He has claimed his SS early and I have been receiving 1/2 of that SS benefit from prior job. He is about to retire and claim pension from College job - per the windfall rule, his SS will be reduced by the pension amount and it could be reduced to 0. I assume my spousal benefit will be reduced to a maximum of half the reduced amount ... at best. Is this correct?
Thank you very much for your help,

Hi,

Hi Larry,

Re: WEP

I am receiving US Social Security payments. The WEP is 50% because I receive Canadian Social Security and I worked for a local government here in Canada for over 20 years. Is this correct? I don't believe I should be penalized WEP because I worked for a Canadian local government. I never worked for the government in the US. Would appreciate clarification on this. Can I appeal this if they made a mistake. I have been receiving benefits for 3 months now.

Thank you very much

Hi,

On June 1, I will retire from local government after 23 years, but the City does not pay into social security; being one of
about 7 states. However, I contributed to SS almost 20 years, but was told I would lose at least 2/3, possibly all of it.
This is due to the GPO. I am a divorced widow, and my government pension is unbelievably low because I didn't work
there for 30 years. This is the most unfair rule I've ever heard, and each time I call SS, I get a different answer. Any
advice from you is greatly appreciated.

Hi,

My government pension will cancel out my SS benefit.. Will I get reimbursed what I paid into social security since I will not receive any benefits? And if not, how is that legal? I worked 10 years paying into SS and when I retire, I will have paid 30 years into pension. How do I just lose 10 years of retirement benefits? I can’t even understand how it’s legal to reduce it. Thank you, Sheila

Hi Sheila,