Will my husband's Ohio state pension reduce my Social Security benefits when I retire at 65?

The good news is that your husband's Ohio state pension that you receive as a survivor benefit should NOT affect your own Social Security retirement benefits. GPO and WEP only apply when YOU earned a pension from work not covered by Social Security taxes. Since you paid into Social Security for 40+ years at your jobs, you'll get your full earned Social Security retirement benefit regardless of receiving your husband's state pension survivor benefits. They're completely separate systems. What you should focus on is WHEN to claim your Social Security. At 65, you'll be below your Full Retirement Age (probably 66+10 months if you're 64 now). Claiming at 65 means taking a permanent reduction of about 8-10% compared to waiting until your FRA.

your husband pension has nothing to do with ur own ss benefits. its only if YOU worked somewhere that didnt take ss taxes that you'd have a problem with that wep thing. my sister had the same situation with her husbands fire department pension and she gets both with no problem full amounts enjoy your retirement!

Everyone here is giving you good information about the pension not affecting your Social Security, but I want to emphasize the importance of timing. Since your Full Retirement Age is likely 66 and 10 months (based on your birth year), claiming at 65 means you'll only get about 90% of your full benefit amount. And if you could wait until 70, you'd get 124% of your full benefit amount! I'd strongly recommend creating a my Social Security account at ssa.gov where you can see your exact estimated benefit amounts at different ages. This will help you make an informed decision about when to claim. Also, have you considered whether you might be eligible for any survivor benefits on your husband's Social Security record (separate from his pension)? If he worked jobs that paid into Social Security and his benefit would be higher than yours, that's something to look into as well.

You can check to see if ur eligible for Survivors benefits on his record too. My husband died 2 years ago and I get his full social security amount because it was higher than mine would be. You can only get one benefit tho - either your own SS or his SS survivors - whichever is higher. But you can get his pension AND social security for sure.

I went through something similar last year trying to understand all these confusing SS rules! I was getting nowhere trying to reach SSA by phone - busy signals, disconnections, or wait times over an hour. Then I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to a real person at SSA in under 10 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU It was worth it to finally talk to someone who could look at my specific situation with the pension and SS questions. The agent confirmed what others are saying here - survivor pension from spouse doesn't affect your own SS retirement benefit.

My sister is dealing with this exact same thing! Her husband worked for Ohio Department of Transportation and now she gets his pension. She started her Social Security last year and gets the full amount, no reductions. Ohio pension + her SS = no problem at all.

EVERYONE HERE IS MISSING THE CRITICAL POINT!!! If your husband paid into Ohio STRS or PERS instead of Social Security during those years, then there IS a potential impact! The GPO (Government Pension Offset) can reduce spousal or survivor Social Security benefits if you get a government pension!! I lost 2/3 of my expected Social Security widow's benefit because of this HORRIBLE rule! The SSA doesn't volunteer this information!

Thank you everyone for the incredibly helpful responses! I feel much better knowing that my husband's pension won't affect my Social Security benefits. I'm definitely going to look into creating that my Social Security account to see the exact numbers for claiming at different ages. After reading all your advice, I'm now thinking I should consider waiting until my full retirement age of 66+10 months instead of claiming at 65. The 10% difference in benefits could be significant over time. I appreciate all the personal experiences shared too - it's reassuring to hear from others in similar situations who are receiving both pension and Social Security without reductions.