I am currently reading your book, "Get What's Yours, Social Security", and have a question regarding SS benefits for myself. I retired from teaching in Ca. 4 years ago with a pension. I am 67 years old. However, before teaching, I paid into SS for several years. I receive a yearly statement from SS stating that I need 3 more credits to apply for benefits. I am considering working to earn my 3 credits, but am not sure that I will receive any benefits, due to my teacher's retirement. The SS office told me that they will not even figure out my benefit until I have earned the full 40 credits. When reading your book, it appears that I would be under the GPO provision, and that any benefit I might receive would be a spousal benefit, not my own benefit. My husband does receive Social Security, $1640 per month. My question is this: Will it be beneficial for me to work and pay into SS to earn my 40 credits, or will my pension eliminate any benefit I may receive? P.S. My husband also has a pension besides his SS and he is 69 years old. (Not sure if this matters)
Thank you for your help!

Hi,

The Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision only affects spousal and widow's (including the divorced equivalent) benefits, not benefits payable on your own work record (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). Conversely, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) can affect the amount of a person's own retirement or disability benefits, but not other types of benefits (e.g. spousal, widow).

WEP never reduces the amount payable on a person's own record to zero. Therefore, if you earn the additional quarters of coverage (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/QC.html) that you need for insured status, you should be eligible for at least some Social Security benefits. Our maximization software would allow you to enter projected earnings in order to calculate your potential benefit rate, and could also tell you the effect that WEP would have on your benefit amount.

It sounds like you would likely be at least technically entitled to spousal benefits on your husband's record now, however, due to GPO those benefits would likely be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your teacher's pension. That could reduce your spousal rate to zero depending on the amount of your pension. Our software also handles GPO calculations, so you should strongly consider using it to determine your best course of action with regard to Social Security.

Best, Jerry