I read your response to a question on 4/22/17 regarding a wife receiving her full social security inquiring if when she receives half of his pension will her ss benefits be reduced by 2/3rd. You explained that the GPO only applies to the ex husband that has the federal pension.
So is this below scenario correct?
Wife and husband married at 20 years of age. They are the same age. They were married 40 years. Wife paid into Social Security entire time. Husband paid only into a government pension that entire time, no social security. They are getting divorced now at age 64. Per divorce decree wife will receive half of pension. They will retire at 67. So wife will receive her full social security benefits and half of his pension. He will only receive his half of his pension and he will not be eligible for spousal ss because of the GPO law.(Cited from GPO offset page on SS website-"If two-thirds of your government pension is more than your spousal social security benefit, your benefit could be reduced to zero") He will only receive his pension. Do I understand that correctly? That is not a fair 50/50 split divorce now is it? The Divorce is in process now- If this is true, wondering if this could be used in negotiations during the divorce to reduce the ex wife's portion of 50% of pension to a lower percentage? Establish a lower amount of the pension she would receive that is more fair so that they both receive closer to the same monetary amount when they retire? Your thoughts? Thank you very much!

Hi,

Yes, it sounds like you understand correctly. This couple's divorce settlement is completely irrelevant to Social Security's laws, so the fact that the husband in this case may be required to give half of his pension to his wife wouldn't change his status with regard to spousal benefits. In other words, Social Security would still offset any spousal benefits for which he qualifies by 2/3rds of the gross amount of his government pension.

I'm not a lawyer, though, so I have no idea whether or not Social Security's laws and the resulting effect on benefits payable to this couple could be considered by the court in determining the terms of their divorce settlement.

Best, Jerry