Is there anyway possible around the Government Pension Offset?

I worked for a small municipality and fell into a niche group between 1980-81 that did not pay into Social Security. It was never explained (or offered to us) after that, that we could be reinstated into the system. (22 yrs old and Social Security was a mystery.)

I was married for 23 yrs and told I was eligible for "Spousal Benefit" of almost $1,000.
Then told because I worked for a local government and have a pension of $1,800, it would be taken away.

Please help! I was planning on using that money to cover health insurance costs, since I am totally disabled.

Hi. There are exceptions to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf), but unfortunately there's nothing in your description that makes me you'd be exempt from GPO. If you collect a pension based on your work for a governmental agency (e.g. local, county, state, or federal) in the U.S., and if your earnings from that employment were exempt from Social Security taxes, then your Social Security spousal and/or survivor benefits would almost certainly need to be offset by 2/3rds of the gross amount of your government pension. In your case, it sounds like that would reduce your spousal rate to zero.

Best, Jerry