Hello,

My husband passed away from cancer when he was 47. I'm now going to be 57 in December. I've worked for local school district for 32 years and can retire at anytime. At this time, I would receive $2,900 from PERA. The railroad retirement office said that at age 60, I can receive $263.00 in tier two payments but cannot receive tier one. So because I have worked I'm not able to collect anymore that $263 because my retirement is more than what my husbands retirement would be.

I've asked them what would happen if I pull all my PERA out, but he said I still would only receive $263. My husband also has some social security but not sure what he put in on quarters.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

My expertise is limited to Social Security (SS), and not Railroad Retirement (RR). If a person receives a pension based on their work for a government agency that was exempt from Social Security taxes, their Social Security spousal and widow(er) benefits are subject to an offset of 2/3rds of the amount of their non-covered pension. This is due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). I believe that also holds true for tier 1 RR spousal and widow's benefits, but I can't say for sure.

In the case of SS survivor benefits, if you forfeit your rights to a non-covered government pension and withdraw only your contributions from the pension plan, that withdrawal would not result in GPO (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202608400). However, receipt of a lump-sum in lieu of a pension that includes employer contributions would likely still result in GPO. As I say, though, I don't know if the same holds true for RR. Nor am I suggesting that you should forfeit your rights to your non-covered pension, since that may well be worse for you in the long run.

Best, Jerry