Social Security spousal benefits with GPO - can my Texas teacher spouse claim based on my record now?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Social Security Fairness Act has been proposed many times but has NOT been passed into law yet. The GPO (Government Pension Offset) and WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) are still in effect as of 2025. Your wife's potential Social Security spousal benefit would still be reduced by 2/3 of her Texas teacher pension. So if her teacher pension is substantial, it might completely wipe out any spousal benefits she could receive from your record. For example, if she gets $3,000/month from her Texas pension, 2/3 of that is $2,000. If her spousal benefit would be $1,200 (50% of your $2,400), the GPO would completely eliminate it because $1,200 - $2,000 = less than zero.

My mom was a Texas teacher too and went thru this EXACT same thing!!!! The GPO is sooooo unfair to teachers!!!! They work their whole lives teaching our kids and then get penalized. The system is BROKEN!!!

I think you're getting confused with the WEP and GPO - they're different things. The WEP affects your OWN benefits if you worked in a job that didn't pay into SS. The GPO affects SPOUSAL benefits. Your wife would be affected by GPO, not WEP since she's trying to claim on YOUR record. But either way, no, nothing has changed with either. The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal both, but it's still stuck in Congress like it has been for years.

Your wife should still apply for spousal benefits anyway. The actual calculation is more complex than people realize, and depending on the exact amount of her teacher pension, she might still get some small amount of spousal benefits. The worst SSA can say is no. The formula is: Spousal Benefit - (2/3 × Teacher Pension) = GPO-Reduced Spousal Benefit If she's eligible for the maximum spousal benefit (50% of your PIA) and her teacher pension isn't too large, she might still get something. It costs nothing to apply except time.

Good luck getting through to SSA right now! Just tried calling about my own GPO issue and was on hold for TWO HOURS before getting disconnected. Trying to get an in-person appointment is almost impossible too - next available at my office is 3 months out! The retirement wave has completely overwhelmed them.

To answer your earlier question - your wife needs to apply for spousal benefits through the main SSA website or by calling 1-800-772-1213. For GPO situations, they'll need documentation of her pension amount, so she should have that ready. There is current legislation (Social Security Fairness Act of 2025) that would repeal both WEP and GPO, but it doesn't have enough support to pass yet. Every few years this gets reintroduced but hasn't made it through Congress. Maybe that's what her colleague was referring to?

my husban was a police officer in ohio and WEP took almost HALF his ss benifits even though he worked other jobs for 20 years and paid in!!!!! its absolutly criminal what they do to public servents who paid into both systems!!!!

One important thing to note is that if your wife worked any jobs that DID pay into Social Security (maybe summer jobs, part-time work before teaching, etc.) and earned at least 40 credits (roughly 10 years of work), she might be eligible for her own Social Security benefit. In that case, WEP would apply to her own benefit instead of GPO applying to spousal benefits. This gets complicated fast, but sometimes people find they're better off claiming their own reduced benefit under WEP than getting nothing under GPO. Might be worth checking her earnings record on MySocialSecurity to see if she has any SS credits.