just wondering - did your sister ever work enough to qualify for Medicare on her own record? if shes getting SS benefits i assume yes but just checking cause thats important at her age too

After thinking about this more, I want to clarify something important: When your sister's husband eventually DOES file for benefits (whether now or later), she will automatically be eligible for the spousal benefit if it would increase her total benefit amount. The benefit calculation is: She gets her own benefit first, then an additional amount if the spousal benefit (up to 50% of her husband's PIA) would be higher. The early filing reduction from her claiming at 62 will affect the spousal amount, but she'd still likely see some increase. Also worth noting - if her husband passes away before her, she would be eligible for 100% of his benefit amount as a widow (assuming it's higher than her own). This survivor benefit can actually be a major factor in deciding when he should claim.

Have you looked into seeing if there's any way to roll your PERS into an IRA? I have a friend who worked for Missouri government and she said she was able to do something like that which somehow avoided the GPO. Not sure if it would work the same with CalPERS though.

im so confused about all this pension stuff my wife gets her teacher pension and still has her ss but maybe thats bcuz she was a teacher in tennessee? do different states have different rules about this gpo thing??

Just to address the question about the "disability freeze" that was mentioned - yes, this is a real thing. It means that the years you're on disability don't count as zero-earning years when calculating your retirement benefit. Instead, SSA essentially ignores those years so they don't drag down your average lifetime earnings. This is why your benefit amount stays the same when SSDI converts to retirement.

Thank you everyone for all this helpful information! I'm going to try calling SSA again to ask specifically about the spousal benefit top-up. I'm also going to talk to my husband about checking his PIA so we can figure out if 50% of his would be more than my current SSDI payment. It sounds like there's nothing I need to do about the SSDI to retirement conversion which is a relief!

SSA IT specialist here. The current outage is due to scheduled maintenance that was supposed to complete by 6am EST but encountered some technical difficulties. Engineering teams are working to resolve the issues, and full service should be restored within the next 8-12 hours. Regarding your application timeline: The current processing time for retirement benefits is 75-90 days in most cases. Your online status may not update frequently during this period, but rest assured your application is still being processed even when the website is unavailable. If you have immediate concerns about your specific application, calling your local office with your confirmation number is your best option.

UPDATE: The website is working again this morning! I was able to log in and check my application status. It's still showing as "processing" but at least I can see it's in the system. Thanks everyone for your help and commiseration!

My neighbor was in this exact situation (teacher married to private sector worker) and was told by their financial guy the repeal was

That's exactly what I was worried about. I'll definitely make sure they understand this isn't guaranteed so they can plan realistically. Thank you for sharing your neighbor's experience.