I am a retired Fed Gov't employee under CSRS (the old retirement system) which I did not to put into SS. I never put in the required quarters to get SS. I have been told I should be able to get benefits under my husbands SS as his spouse, as well as I cannot get spousal SS due to my retirement. According to the SS Office, I cannot received this SSI benefits due to income I over $2000 a month coming in, plus saving. However, I just read an article on "“restricted application for spousal benefits only” and would like to know if I fall in this category and if so, how do I apply?

Hi,

The purpose of filing a restricted application for spousal benefits only is to delay receipt of your own Social Security benefits. Since you apparently don't qualify for Social Security retirement benefits on your own record, it wouldn't matter whether you file either a restricted or unrestricted application for spousal benefits. And due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf), Social Security would almost certainly offset any spousal or widow's benefits for which you qualify by 2/3rds of the amount of your CSRS pension. Given the rate of your CSRS pension that would likely result in a spousal benefit of zero, although you may qualify for some widow's benefits should your husband die before you. His full retirement benefit amount would likely still need to be more than 2/3rds of the amount of your CSRS pension rate in order for you to qualify for even widow's benefits, though.

Best, Jerry