My wife and I are trying to get a handle on her expected retirement income. (I am her spouse, retired, age 66.) She may retire in Feb. 2019 and would begin to draw the max. eligible pension from NY State. She will be eligible for SSA benefits at that time (2/2019) when she turns 66. Her pension is estimated to be ~ $40K/yr. Will there be any reduction/penalty to either her pension or SSA payout? Further, is there any penalty since I will also be receiving the SSA benefit? Thank you for your reply.
Rick

Hi Rick,

Your drawing Social Security benefits won't affect your wife's retirement benefit amount on her own work record. And, her NY State pension will only affect her Social Security benefit rate and filing options if the earnings on which her pension is based were exempt from Social Security taxes. In that event, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) could affect her retirement benefit rate, and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision could affect whether or not she could receive spousal benefits on your record. I'm not familiar with the NY State pension program, so I don't know whether or not your wife's Social Security benefits could affect her state pension.

Since you are drawing your benefits and since your wife was born prior to January 2 1954, she could potentially file just for spousal benefits on your record at age 66 and allow her own benefit rate to grow until age 70. In order to determine if that is her best strategy, your wife should strongly consider using the maximization software available on this website to compare her filing options.

Best, Jerry