Greetings!
I am a 63 y.o. widow who works for state government and has a pension plan. I need to retire early to provide supportive care for my mother. I will access my benefit at year's end and had anticipated I could also file for widow benefits (my husband died in 2001 and was receiving SSD at the time) and take that with my state pension. Am I to understand that there is an annual income limit and if my state pension annual income exceeds that, I will not qualify for the widow benefit? It is lower than my own SS benefit would be but felt I could manage with the widow's benefit and then switch over to my own at age 66. What other options are available in my situation? Can I access my own SS now at a reduced amount and not have income limitations? If I have to work part time, would that impact SS benefits as well? Thank you for the clarification! Kathy

Hi Kathy,

There is an earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking2.html) that can limit the amount of benefits that can be paid to beneficiaries of either retirement or widow's benefits prior to full retirement age, but there is not an income limit per se. A person can have any amount of unearned income (e.g. pensions, rent, dividends, etc.) and still draw Social Security benefits, however, if the person receives a pension based on their own work that was exempt from Social Security taxes they could be subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and/or Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision.

In your case, your pension from the state would only affect your Social Security retirement or widow's benefits if your wages have been exempt from Social Security taxes. If you've been paying Social Security taxes on your wages from the state, then your pension won't have any effect on either your widow's benefits nor your own retirement benefits. On the other hand, if your wages from the state have been exempt from Social Security taxes, then your widow's benefits would likely be subject to an offset of 2/3rds of the amount of your state pension (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf), and your own Social Security retirement benefits would likely be calculated using a less generous formula (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

The maximization software available on this website can handle cases involving WEP and GPO, but whether or not those are involved in your case you should strongly consider using the maximization software to explore your filing options and determine your best strategy.

Best, Jerry