My wife collects social security. A little from her w2 earnings and more from her half of my social security. When her payments started, they were reduced by about $30 per month due to GPO. She worked for about 10 years for the local school district in s part time job. They had a savings plan and my wife contributed about $4000 to it and the school district contributed about $1000. So in less than 3 years, the GPO will eat up all the school districts contribution and in less than 14 years, it would eat up both the schools contribution and my wife’s contribution. In 14 years, she will be 78 years old. Seems punitive. We questioned the SS office about this and they insist it is correct. Is it correct and is there anything we can do about it?

Hi,

I can't tell you for sure whether the reduction in your wife's benefit rate is correct or not. The Government Pension Offset (GPO) can cause a person's spousal benefit rate to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of their government pension, if they didn't pay Social Security taxes on their government earnings. If instead of a pension a person receives distributions from a defined contribution plan, then Social Security generally prorates the total amount based on a specific formula. That formula is complicated, and is described in the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202608400#d4.

As for what you might be able to do, you could file an appeal questioning Social Security's determination (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf). However, appeals must normally be filed within 60 days of being notified of Social Security's decision, so I don't know if your wife would still be in her appeals period.

Best, Jerry