Will my wife's teacher pension reduce her Social Security survivor benefits due to WEP/GPO rules?

This is actually a great question about the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). You're dealing with two separate issues: 1. WEP affects your wife's OWN Social Security benefits based on her work history in SS-covered jobs. Since she worked in non-SS-covered employment and will receive a pension from that work, her own SS benefit will likely be reduced (not eliminated). 2. GPO affects SPOUSAL and SURVIVOR benefits. This is what you need to worry about regarding your wife's survivor benefits after you pass. GPO will reduce her survivor benefits by 2/3 of her non-covered pension amount. Importantly, your decision to delay claiming until 70 STILL MATTERS because: - Your own benefit will be larger (about 8% per year of delay) - Her survivor benefit is based on your benefit amount - Even after GPO reduction, a larger starting survivor benefit means more money for her So yes, delaying is still advantageous if you can afford to wait, even with GPO in the picture.

BEWARE!! My husband was in THE EXACT SAME SITUATION!! He delayed till 70 thinking my teachers pension wouldn't matter much. When he passed away last year, I got NOTHING from his Social Security!!! The GPO took it ALL because my pension was too high!! The SSA office people didn't warn us about this in advance!!! I'm so angry we didn't understand this sooner!! Make sure you do the ACTUAL MATH with real numbers from your situation. Don't just assume delaying will help!!!!

my wife had this same issue. she taught for 30 yrs in ohio which doesnt do ss. what we learned is that if she takes her ohio pension first, her ss gets reduced. but if she takes ss first and then the pension, no reduction. might be something to look into. good luck man its confusing.

I dealt with this exact situation last year when planning my retirement. After hours of being on hold trying to reach Social Security to ask about WEP/GPO calculations, I found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an SSA agent in under 20 minutes instead of waiting for hours. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU The agent I spoke with ran the actual numbers based on my specific situation and showed me exactly how much the GPO would reduce my wife's potential survivor benefits. This was incredibly helpful because the online calculators were giving me different answers than what the SSA determined. I'd recommend getting the actual calculation from SSA rather than guessing, especially with something this important.

My ex is a teacher with a non-SS pension and from what I understand, it depends on how much her pension is vs what your SS benefit would be. The 2/3 rule means that if her pension is really big, she might not get anything from your SS even if you wait. But if her pension is smaller, waiting would still help her get more. Its really about running the numbers for your specific situation

Thank you all for the responses. I'm starting to understand this better. I think I need to find out exactly how much my wife's teacher pension will be when she retires in 2 years. From what I'm gathering, if her pension is large, the GPO might wipe out most or all of her survivor benefits regardless of when I claim. But if it's moderate, then my delaying could still benefit her. I'll try to get specific numbers from both SSA and her pension system so we can make an informed decision. This is much more complicated than I initially thought!

I just want to add that the rules for WEP and GPO are incredibly unfair to public servants like teachers! My mother taught for 35 years and lost almost all her SS from my dad when he passed because of this rule. Congress should repeal these provisions!! They're basically penalizing people twice!!

Has your wife looked into if she can get a lump sum for her pension instead of monthly payments? My aunt did this with her state pension and somehow it helped with the GPO thing. Not sure if all pension plans allow this tho

I called my wife's pension system today. Her projected pension after 24 years (when she plans to retire) will be about $3,850 monthly. So if I'm understanding correctly, the GPO reduction would be about $2,567 (2/3 of $3,850). My SS benefit at 70 would be around $3,940 vs. $2,950 if I claimed now at 64. So it looks like if I delay to 70, she would still get about $1,373 in survivor benefits after the GPO reduction. If I claim now, she'd only get about $383 after GPO. Does that math look right to everyone? Seems like delaying would still help her significantly in this case.

As a new member who's been researching this topic for my own family situation, I want to thank everyone for this incredibly detailed discussion. The math example that Camila provided really helps illustrate how these calculations work in practice. One thing I'd add for anyone reading this thread: make sure to also consider that your wife's own Social Security benefit (from her 12 years of covered employment) will likely be reduced by WEP when she starts collecting it. This is separate from the GPO impact on survivor benefits, but it's another piece of the puzzle that affects overall retirement planning. Also, I've found that many local SSA offices have staff who aren't fully versed in WEP/GPO calculations, so getting multiple opinions or using the online calculators on SSA.gov can be helpful to verify the numbers you're given. Your situation shows that even with these provisions, strategic timing decisions can still make a meaningful difference. The $990 monthly difference in survivor benefits you calculated is substantial over time.