Dear Larry,
My husband had another job before he worked for a city college. He has claimed his SS early and I have been receiving 1/2 of that SS benefit from prior job. He is about to retire and claim pension from College job - per the windfall rule, his SS will be reduced by the pension amount and it could be reduced to 0. I assume my spousal benefit will be reduced to a maximum of half the reduced amount ... at best. Is this correct?
Thank you very much for your help,

Hi,

No, that's not entirely correct. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) never reduces a person's Social Security benefit rate to zero. Instead, it can result in the use of a different and less generous calculation formula being used to compute the person's benefit rate, but there is a WEP guarantee provision that could further limit the amount of the reduction (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

It is true, though, that if you are drawing spousal benefits on your husband's record then your spousal rate will be reduced if your husband's benefit rate is reduced due to the fact that he starts receiving a pension based on earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes. However, the only way that would reduce your spousal rate to zero is if you are also drawing benefits on your own record that would be higher than your reduced spousal rate.

Best, Jerry