SS Question

[Hyper]

"How Much Will My Spouse Receive?
If your spouse qualifies on their own record, we will pay that amount first. If the benefit on your record is higher, they will get an additional amount on your record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount. "

So I'm not the brightest individual. Trying to understand what the above statement means exactly. It's from SS.gov. I'm retired. DW is not. Still awhile before receiving benefits. DW benefit is about 5/8ths of my benefit. Does the above statement mean DW will get the same benefit amount that I will? Reason I ask is wondering how SS works out should one of us pass.

Additionally is this statement on SS.gov. "If your spouse will receive a pension for work not covered by Social Security such as government employment, the amount of their Social Security benefits on your record may be reduced."

DW will receive a small state pension bringing DW benefit to about 3/4 of my benefit.

TIA for any comments.

 

[pb4uski]

She will get her benefit or 1/2 of your benefit, whichever is more. Since her 5/8ths of your benefit is greater, she will get her benefit.

If you pass on, she will get your benefit and her benefit will stop.

Others will weigh in, but I don't think that her state pension changes anything.

 

[Alan]

She will get her benefit or 1/2 of your benefit, whichever is more. Since her 5/8ths of your benefit is greater, she will get her benefit.

If you pass on, she will get your benefit and her benefit will stop.

That is my understanding also. My DW plans to take her SS later this year when she reaches 62. Being about a year older and with a higher benefit I plan on delaying taking mine until age 70 as a bit of longevity insurance for her.

 

[Tadpole]

If your wife had a state job that did not pay into SS and doesn't have enough years of paying into SS, the calculation of her benefits might be harder to estimate.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I am a little confused about this too.

I am 63 and do not currently take SS, DW is 58 and of course does not. When she is 62 she will have "Say $1000pm in her own right). I will be getting "Say $3000pm in my own right).

Does this mean she can get $1500pm instead of her $1000, even though I am getting and claiming $3,000?

 

[CRLLS]

To simplify, assuming you are both at FRA, Each person will will get an amount that is the higher of 1) their earned PIA benefit, or 2) 1/2 of their spouse's PIA benefit. In the second case, it is actually a combination of benefits. But to keep it simple, the amount they will get will be equal to 1/2 of their spouses benefit.

Things get a bit more complicated when filing early or later than FRA with reductions and additions or if one of them worked in the public sector. But the FRA benefits are as stated above.

 

[mountainsoft]

I'm far from a Social Security expert, but here's what I've gathered from my own research:

If your spouse qualifies on their own record, we will pay that amount first. If the benefit on your record is higher, they will get an additional amount on your record so that the combination of benefits equals that higher amount. "

SS will pay her benefits first.

If you are already receiving your SS benefits, your wife will receive 50% of your benefits "IF" they are higher than her own benefits.

Instead of just taking the 50% from your account, SS pays her benefits first, then pays the balance from your account to get the 50% value.

However, if she files for benefits before her full retirement age, the 50% is reduced according to how early she files. There's a calculator somewhere on the SS site for spousal benefits. Sorry I don't have a link at the moment.

Worst case, if the 50% (or whatever reduction) of your benefits is less than her own, she will receive her own benefits.

wondering how SS works out should one of us pass.

The surviving spouse will receive the higher of your individual payments. The lower payment will end.

For example, if your benefit is higher than your wife's and you die, she will receive your benefit instead of her own. Her own benefit will end.

If your spouse will receive a pension for work not covered by Social Security such as government employment, the amount of their Social Security benefits on your record may be reduced.

If your wife pays social security taxes on her income, her pension will not affect her SS benefits.

If your wife does not pay social security taxes, her SS benefits will be reduced.

 

[pb4uski]

I am a little confused about this too.

I am 63 and do not currently take SS, DW is 58 and of course does not. When she is 62 she will have "Say $1000pm in her own right). I will be getting "Say $3000pm in my own right).

Does this mean she can get $1500pm instead of her $1000, even though I am getting and claiming $3,000?

Assuming that she claims at her FRA and you are receiving benefits, then she will get the higher of her benefit or half of your FRA benefit. If she claims at her FRA and you are not receiveing benefits, then she gets her benefit and then gets the extra amount once you start receiving benefits.

If she claims before her FRA then the amount that she gets will be discounted because she is claiming early.

In my exerience, SSAnalyze is a good tool to look at various alternatives. Give it a try.

 

[TrophyWife]

After my father in law passed, my mother in law now gets about 1/2 of what her husband was getting. They have a weird way of figuring it. But it's only about $2000 a month. Which in our area of the country is nothing.

 

[mathjak107]

today you only get your own benefit unless you are eligible to file restricted application .

if you have your own work record than today spousal benefits consists of two parts .

one part is your own benefit at the time you file and the other part is an adder if 1/2 the higher primary amount (amount at fra) is more than the primary amount of the lower benefit .

so if you take an example of mary who took her own early benefit at 62 , her reduced benefit is 825.00 , if she waited until fra it would have been 1100.00

her husbands primary amount is 2500.00 . so regardless of what age her husband files , you take 50% of the 2500 which is 1250 and subtract 1100 regardless if mary filed early or not .

that 150 dollar difference is added to mary's early benefit of 825 bringing her up to 975.00 .

now , if mary is at least fra she gets the full 975.00 , which by the way will always be less than 1/2 her husbands because she took her own ss early .

but if mary is less than her fra then shegets a reduction for every month under fra she switched to spousal .

so it can be a good idea to take your own to fra and then claim spousal .

be-careful though , if the higher benefit spouse files first than the lower spouse can not get their own and switch to spousal later at fra .

you automatically are given the higher spousal but then it is reduced because you are not fra yet .

it is always cleaner to let the lower benefit file first


http://www.kiplinger.com/article/re...mize-the-social-security-spousal-benefit.html

 

[mathjak107]

After my father in law passed, my mother in law now gets about 1/2 of what her husband was getting. They have a weird way of figuring it. But it's only about $2000 a month. Which in our area of the country is nothing.

that is survivor benefits . it has totally different rules than retirement ss .

 

[Fedup]

$2000 is not nothing. That's what my husband gets. I'm in the same area too. The thing is, it's not his only income.

 

[gerntz]

She will get her benefit or 1/2 of your benefit, whichever is more. Since her 5/8ths of your benefit is greater, she will get her benefit.

If you pass on, she will get your benefit and her benefit will stop.

Others will weigh in, but I don't think that her state pension changes anything.

Actually, wouldn't she still her benefit on her account with the balance made up from your account to equal your benefit? I know it's the same $ either way.

 

[pb4uski]

Technically you are correct... same $$ so I think it is easier to describe as I did.

 

[Lstansbury]

Yes, her state pension can reduce her social security benefits if she is drawing on her own account and if she didn't pay SS taxes while state employed. It's called the GPO or government pension offset. There is a table on ssa.gov that shows you what percentage reduction to expect. The more years she paid into SS and made "substantial earnings" during those years, the less reduction. I have 29 years of substantial SS earnings and a sad little government​ pension after 11 years with my state. The GPO reduction percent is pretty minor because I have 29 years. If I hit 30 years or more of substantial SS earnings, there will be no reduction. Keep in mind that substantial earnings in 2016 was defined around 24000 per year. It just means you probably aren't working part time.

 

[youbet]

Yes, her state pension can reduce her social security benefits if she is drawing on her own account and if she didn't pay SS taxes while state employed. It's called the GPO or government pension offset. There is a table on ssa.gov that shows you what percentage reduction to expect. The more years she paid into SS and made "substantial earnings" during those years, the less reduction. I have 29 years of substantial SS earnings and a sad little government​ pension after 11 years with my state. The GPO reduction percent is pretty minor because I have 29 years. If I hit 30 years or more of substantial SS earnings, there will be no reduction. Keep in mind that substantial earnings in 2016 was defined around 24000 per year. It just means you probably aren't working part time.

You're confusing WEP and GPO.

WEP impacts your own SS. GPO impacts collecting on your spouses record.

The "years of substantial earnings" you refer to are part of WEP and don't come into play with GPO.

It's important for folks who worked for gov't employers where they did not contribute to SS to understand WEP and GPO and the SS web site is a fairly clear place to read up on them.

 

[Lstansbury]

Additionally is this statement on SS.gov. "If your spouse will receive a pension for work not covered by Social Security such as government employment, the amount of their Social Security benefits on your record may be reduced."

DW will receive a small state pension bringing DW benefit to about 3/4 of my benefit

Correction to my previous post: Youbet is right - the Government Pension Benefit (GPO) refers to your spouses "survivor benefits." 2/3rds of your wife's government pension will be deducted from her SSA survivor benefit drawn against your account. Say her survivor's benefit is $1,000 per month? And she gets $300 a month from government pension? SSA will deduct 2/3rds or $200 from her SSA survivor's benefit payment. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf

The reduction I mentioned in previous post is the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) - not GOP. It does not affect your spouse's survivors benefits and would only impact her if she decided to collect on her own benefits. NEA - FAQs About the Windfall Elimination Provision





Also

 

[TrophyWife]

Not looking to get political ......Looks like they are working on repealing the Govt Pension Offset

 

[Chuckanut]

This might help explain WEP and GPO and why they are part of the SS rules and regs. The author really knows his stuff, IMHO.

GPO

https://www.creators.com/read/your-...rnment-pension-offset-law-not-about-to-change

To put it another way, the vast majority of people in this country work at jobs in which Social Security taxes are deducted from their paychecks. Less than 10 percent of Americans work at jobs not covered by Social Security. But they are a very vocal minority who have been misled over the years into thinking that the government is out to con them out of Social Security benefits. I will use today's column to show just the opposite is true.

WEP

Explaining the Windfall Elimination Provision, by Tom Margenau | Creators Syndicate

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about something called the "government pension offset." It is a law that essentials says this: If you get a pension from a job that was not covered by Social Security, that pension will be treated just like a Social Security retirement pension, and it will be used to offset any benefits you might be due on a spouse's Social Security record.

There is a companion law called the "windfall elimination provision," more commonly known by its acronym, WEP, which usually reduces any Social Security retirement benefits earned at side jobs by folks who spent the bulk of their life working at a job that was not covered by Social Security. Most folks impacted by WEP despise the law, until they understand why it exists.

 

[Lstansbury]

As someone who as of December 2017 has worked long enough and hard enough to qualify for both full social security benefits (30 years substantial earnings) and a state government pension (10 years vesting), only yo have my SS reduced? I respectfully disagree.

 

[Sunset]

I will RANT:

I still hate WEP as I had no choice about SS contributions, and the % they take is too high, since my SS will be low anyhow.

I could see it, if someone were getting near max SS, they could WEP the person down to the max amount.

SS is earned, it's not welfare, and they are going to take some of mine away like thieves.

 

[youbet]

At our house, DW is impacted by both WEP and GPO.

WEP seems to make some sense. She only contributed to SS for a short time and in low amounts since she spent most of her working life working with the learning impaired in a gov't job. To the SS folks, her income pattern looks like she was a low paid worker who only worked for a few years and therefore she would benefit from the more generous relative benefits given to the low paid. Not really fair I suppose. WEP corrects this.

But GPO is a different matter. That affects me. I wish to protect her by having her be the beneficiary of MY SS as a survivor (if I predecease her). I want her to benefit from a provision that I paid for. But I can't. Two thirds of her public pension is as much as my SS so her survivor benefit, based on MY SS and which I paid for, is zero. If she never worked (and never paid into SS herself), she would qualify for a survivor benefit based on my SS. But since she did work, in her case in a non-SS job, she doesn't.

I would think that all people who DON'T pay into SS would be treated the same. But in the case of GPO, no.