Hi Larry. How could affect my US SS retirement benefits, include spousal, incoming foreign SS Benefits, what under Totalization Agreement? Part of my earnings were transferred to get foreign benefits. My foreign benefits are related to my 29 years of work in my born country. I had been paying SS to this foreign system, of course, all of these years, then I moved to USA 2 decades ago, got a job and paid into SS for a 11 years. I applied for US SS retirement Benefits and a claimant specialist helped me to apply for a spousal benefits too, what she advised. She doesn’t know if any reductions could affect my US Benefits, because of receiving foreign Benefits under Totalization Agreement, could make some differences in every each applicants. Do you know little bit more, since I have been waiting for approval of both benefits right now. Thanks a lot.

Hi. If you receive a foreign pension based on your work and earnings, that will almost certainly reduce the amount that you'd be eligible for from your own U.S. Social Security retirement benefits. However, foreign pensions don't affect Social Security spousal benefits.

The reason your U.S. Social Security retirement benefit will likely be reduced is due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). WEP can cause retirement benefits to be reduced for people who receive pensions based on their earnings that weren't subject to U.S. Social Security taxes, like your foreign pension (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

There is a separate provision that can reduce spousal benefits for people who receive government pensions based on their earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes. That's called the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). However, only pensions from U.S. governmental agencies count for purposes of the GPO provision. Therefore, if you qualify for spousal benefits, your foreign pension won't have any adverse effect on your U.S. spousal benefit rate.

Best, Jerry