Will my teacher spouse get my full Social Security benefits as survivor with WEP reduction?

Good news - Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) applies only to retirement benefits, not to survivor benefits. If you pass away first, your husband should be eligible to receive your full Social Security survivor benefit as your widower, regardless of his WEP reduction on his own benefit. However, what you need to be concerned about is the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which is different from WEP. GPO can reduce survivor benefits for people who receive pensions from work not covered by Social Security. The GPO reduction is 2/3 of his pension amount. If your husband receives a teacher's pension from employment not covered by Social Security, GPO might apply to any survivor benefits he would receive from your record.

my dad was a firefighter with city pension and mom had SSbenefits. when she died, SSA took away almost all his survivor benfit becuz of GPO. they only gave him like $175 a month from moms record. the SSA office said its bcos of his "non-covered pension" whatever that means.

I went through something very similar when my wife passed in 2024. I was a state employee with a pension and had some Social Security from previous jobs. The rules are incredibly frustrating! You need to immediately contact SSA and ask specifically about GPO in your case. My experience was that I could NOT get accurate information over the phone - I kept getting different answers. After trying for THREE WEEKS to get through on the phone (constant busy signals or 3+ hour wait times), I discovered Claimyr (claimyr.com). They got me connected to an actual SSA agent in under 20 minutes. You can see how it works in their video demo here: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent confirmed that GPO would reduce my survivor benefit by 2/3 of my pension amount. In my case, my state pension didn't pay enough to completely eliminate the survivor benefit, so I still get about $380/month from my late wife's record.

I'm pretty sure they can't take away ALL your benefits...the government just wants to make things complicated to save money lol

My situation was kinda similar. I was a teacher for 25 years in Texas (no SS contributions) but also worked summers at my family business paying into SS. My husband passed 3 years ago and I got hit with GPO. What people don't realize is that the 2/3 reduction is from your GROSS pension amount, before any deductions! So even though my take-home pension is smaller after health insurance and taxes, they still calculated the 2/3 offset from the higher gross amount. Just something to be aware of.

This whole WEP/GPO system is COMPLETELY UNFAIR!!! My husband and I both worked our entire lives, but because he was a public servant (police officer), he gets PENALIZED?? We should be storming Congress over this garbage. They've been promising to reform these ridiculous penalties for DECADES but nothing ever happens. My friend's husband was a teacher who lost thousands in benefits because of this. Meanwhile politicians get their full pensions AND Social Security with no penalties! Make it make sense!!!

Social Security specialist here. There's some confusion in some of these responses. Let me clarify: 1. WEP affects your own retirement benefits if you have a pension from non-covered work. 2. GPO affects spousal or survivor benefits if you have a pension from non-covered work. In your case, since your husband has a teacher's pension from work not covered by Social Security AND only has 20 years of substantial earnings under Social Security, he: - Already sees his own SS retirement benefit reduced by WEP - Would likely have any survivor benefits from your record reduced by GPO The GPO reduction is 2/3 of his gross monthly pension. So if his teacher's pension is $3,200, the GPO reduction would be about $2,133. If your SS benefit is $2,650, after the GPO reduction, he would receive about $517 in survivor benefits. Here's the official SSA fact sheet on GPO: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf