Social Security survivor benefits reduced by my teacher pension - wasn't WEP/GPO supposed to be eliminated?

Unfortunately, the rep is correct - GPO and WEP are still in effect. There have been multiple bills introduced over the years to eliminate or reduce these provisions (including the Social Security Fairness Act), but none have been signed into law yet. The GPO typically reduces your survivor benefit by 2/3 of your government pension amount. Since you worked in a job not covered by Social Security but your husband paid in, you're caught in exactly the situation GPO was designed for (fairly or unfairly). I went through this same thing when my wife passed 2 years ago - I was a postal worker with a CSRS pension. It's incredibly frustrating.

my mom went thru this exact thing!!! she was a teacher in illinois for 30 yrs and when dad died SSA cut her survivors benefit by like 70%!! its TOTALLY UNFAIR and they call it the "government pension offset" - there was a bill in congress to fix it but it didnt pass

You're dealing with what's commonly called the "widow's penalty" for government workers. The GPO reduction formula is 2/3 of your non-covered pension will be deducted from your Social Security survivor benefit. The calculation your claims rep provided sounds accurate: $3,600 (your pension) × 2/3 = $2,400 offset $2,450 (full survivor benefit) - $2,400 = $50 remaining However, there's a special minimum survivor benefit provision that's likely why you're getting $780 instead of just $50. Unfortunately, there's no appeal process if the calculation was done correctly. The WEP/GPO elimination has been proposed for decades but has significant budget implications, which is why it hasn't passed.

This happened to me too! I was a teacher in Texas for 29 years. When my husband died in 2024, I was shocked that my survivor benefit was reduced to almost nothing because of my TRS pension. I spent HOURS trying to reach someone at SSA to explain this to me - kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting for 2+ hours. So frustrating!!

The SSA rep is right that WEP/GPO are still in effect. There's one thing you might want to double-check though: did you have any Social Security-covered employment during your career? If you have at least 30 years of "substantial earnings" under Social Security, WEP doesn't apply (though GPO would still affect survivor benefits). Even having 20-29 years of substantial SS earnings can reduce the WEP penalty. Worth checking your earnings record on mySocialSecurity to verify.

THIS IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!! The government is STEALING OUR MONEY! I paid in for 40 years and my wife was a teacher and when I die SHE GETS NOTHING!!!! How is this legal??? Politicians don't care about us they just want our votes then they FORGET US!!!

wait i'm confused... is this different from the regular social security stuff? my aunt was a nurse and got my uncles ss when he died no problem

One important detail: the GPO only affects spouse/survivor benefits, not your own earned Social Security benefits. So if you worked enough in Social Security-covered jobs to qualify for your own SS retirement (40 quarters/10 years), you would receive those benefits without GPO reduction. It's specifically the benefits based on your spouse's record that get reduced.

Have you spoken with anyone at CalSTRS about this? When my mother-in-law went through something similar (CA teacher, husband died), a CalSTRS counselor helped her understand all the implications and provided some resources. They can't change the federal law, but they're often more knowledgeable about how it intersects with their pension system than general SSA reps are.