If i worked in the private sector all of my career - contributing to social security, and my spouse is a teacher that doesn’t contribute to social security, is there any way she can receive part of my social security after I’m deceased?

Hi. The answer to that depends of several factors. Widow's can be paid up to 100% of their deceased spouse's benefit amount, but if your wife is receiving a teacher's pension then her widow's benefits would otherwise almost certainly be at least partially offset due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. GPO can cause survivor benefits to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of government (i.e. federal, state or local agency in the U.S.) pensions they receive that are based on their earnings which were exempt from Social Security taxes.

Therefore, assuming that your wife receives a government pension based on her non-Social Security covered earnings, it sounds like she'll probably only be eligible to collect widow's benefits if 2/3rds of the amount of her government pension is less than her widow's benefit rate.

If you haven't already started drawing benefits you may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry