My husband and I (married over 30 years) are both collecting government pensions (he was a cop, I was a teacher). He started collecting his own very small social security check when he turned 62 ($320).He is now 76. His benefit was subject to WEP. I will be 62 in Jan 2022; I am debating whether to start drawing my own social security at that time. Using the WEP calculator on the Social Security website shows I would get a monthly benefit of about $1000. How might my husband’s spousal benefit be calculated if I file at 62? I think he will be subject to GPO, but I’m not sure. His government pension monthly benefit is about $9000 per month. Thanks!

Hi. You describe your husband as a former policeman, so I assume he worked for some type of federal, state, county or municipal governmental agency in the U.S. In that case, I can't imagine that he wouldn't be subject to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision if he applied for spousal benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf). GPO causes any spousal or survivor benefits for which a person would otherwise be eligible to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of government pensions they receive that are based on their earnings from a governmental agency in the U.S. were their earnings were exempt from Social Security taxes.

Regardless of whether you apply for your benefits at age 62 or 70 or anywhere in between, your husband's initial spousal rate would be calculated by subtracting his own primary insurance amount (PIA) from 50% of your PIA. It sounds like that would be a relatively small amount to begin with, and assuming that GPO applies his spousal rate would clearly be reduced to zero given the amount of his government pension.

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits. The software is fully programmed to handle cases involving both the WEP and GPO provisions.

Best, Jerry