My wife and I immigrated to the USA from the UK in 1977. We maintained voluntary UK pension payments for about 10 years after entitling us to a reduced UK pension. I am 69, my wife 67. We have been receiving and paying tax on the UK pension for several years. My wife, who has worked 25 years, recently applied for SSI in the USA and is being questioned on the UK pension with potential for USA SSI to be reduced based upon UK pensions received presumably based upon "Windfall". Is there any defense against this? As we paid into both it seems somewhat unfair.

Hi,

Unless your wife meets one of the exceptions to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), her UK pension would almost certainly cause her to receive a lower U.S. Social Security retirement benefit rate. And, the WEP provision may affect your U.S. retirement benefits as well.

The most common WEP exception is for people with at least 30 years of substantial covered U.S. earnings. For more information on substantial earnings and other exceptions to WEP, as well as the Congressional reasoning for implementation of the WEP provision, refer to this Social Security publication: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.

Best, Jerry