My brother-in-law started drawing his own Social Security benefit at FRA which was over a year ago. His benefit is really low because he worked for the government for 35 years and retired then he took a job covered by S.S. Now his wife has turned 62 this year. She will be entitled to a much higher benefit than his current benefit when she files in 4 years. Can my brother-in-law switch to a spousal benefit now even though he's been drawing on his own record for over a year?

Hi,

Probably not. If your brother-in-law receives a pension based on government work that was exempt from Social Security taxes, his potential spousal benefits would likely be subject to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. Under that provision, an amount equal to 2/3rds of the government pension is withheld from any Social Security spousal or widow(er) benefits for which the person is eligible. So, unless your brother-in-law is exempt from GPO for some reason, if 2/3rds of his government pension rate is higher than his potential spousal benefit amount, the amount payable would be reduced to zero.

For more information about GPO, refer to this pamphlet: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf.

Best, Jerry