Thank you Larry for answering my question. I'm not sure why I would fall under the WEP if I paid into the national health system to qualify for a pension in the UK and Canada Pension Plan). I've paid what I needed to in order to get a pension and also social security in the USA. I'm sorry if my question was misleading, I saw an answer on your website mentioning something about working for the government, and may have given the impression I didn't pay the required amounts from my wages. In all cases, I have always had drawn from my wages the required amounts.

Does this put a different light on your answer please?

Alice

Hi Alice,

No. I never doubted that you paid the appropriate taxes on your earnings in the U.K. and Canada as well as in the U.S. That's not a factor in whether or not your U.S. Social Security would be subject to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). And, it's not just government pensions that can cause WEP to apply. As long as you are receiving any type of pension based on your earnings that were exempt from U.S. Social Security taxes, your U.S. Social Security retirement benefits would be subject to the reduced WEP calculation formula unless you meet one of the exceptions outlined in the following Social Security publication: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.

Foreign pensions like the one that you receive based on your work in Canada and the U.K. are among the types of pensions that can cause U.S. Social Security retirement benefits to be calculated using the less generous WEP calculation method, due to the fact that you were not required to pay U.S. Social Security taxes on your earnings in the U.K. and Canada.

Best, Jerry