I have paid both into Social Security and for 15 years into the Mass retirement system. I understand that I will only receive a portion of the SS. Now, my husband is collecting his SS at age 66. If he were to pass away, I realize that I'm not entitled to his SS benefits at all, if I'm not mistaken. My question is - can I forfeit my pension (which is small) and collect his SS which is more generous? I find this whole system maddening. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Hi,

Neither the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) or the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision would apply unless and until you start receiving a non-covered government pension, so you could likely exempt yourself from those provisions by not filing for your state pension. However, that would probably be counter-productive.

WEP has a guarantee provision that limits the amount of reduction in your retirement benefit rate to no more than 50% of the amount of your non-covered pension and GPO only reduces Social Security spousal and survivor benefits by 2/3rds of the amount of your government pension. So, you may very well end up with less total income by choosing not to file for your state pension.

You may want to strongly consider using our maximization software to explore and compare your options in order to determine your best overall strategy for claiming benefits.

Best, Jerry