I am 65 years old, and a natural born American citizen with enough credits to qualify for full Security Security benefits at age 66. My wife is 58 years old and a German citizen who immigrated to the US in 1999, and she has been a lawful US resident (green card holder) since that time. We have been married 18 years. Prior to immigrating to the US, my wife did not have any US-based income and worked only for German private companies with no connection to the US, so none of her German earnings were subject to US Social Security taxes. Based on her work in Germany, at age 65 she will be eligible for a German pension from one of the German companies (a private pension, not a government-related or a social security benefit), and at age 67 she will be eligible for German social security benefits . She worked for about 5 years in the US (after 1999) and did pay US Social Security taxes on her US earnings, but she does not have enough credits from that work to qualify for US Social Security benefits on her own record. We have three questions:

1) will my wife's private German pension reduce her spousal or widow US Social Security benefit based on my work record, or does the Windfall Elimination Provision only apply to the German social security benefits?

2) can she combine her German and US work histories with the US Social Security Administration to increase her total work credits so that she is eligible for US Social Security benefits on her own record?

3) if she can combine her work history with the US Social Security Administration and she elects to begin receiving benefits on her record at age 62, under current rules can she change to a spousal benefit based on my record when she attains age 67 (when she begins to receive German social security payments) without having the spousal benefit reduced by the effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (i.e., her German social security payments)?

Hi,

The answer to your first question is no. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) only applies to Social Security benefits paid on a person's own record, not spousal or widow's benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf). And, foreign pensions are not considered as government pensions for purposes of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

The answer to your second question is yes, at least potentially. It sounds like your wife may qualify for a totalization benefit from the U.S. based on her combined U.S. and German work credits, although she would need to be at least age 62 in order to qualify. For more information on totalization benefits, refer to Social Security's website: https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/germany.html.

The answer to your third question is no. If your wife qualifies for a U.S. totalization benefit based on her combined U.S. and German credits, the rules would essentially be the same as if she was receiving regular Social Security retirement benefits. That is, when she files for either spousal or U.S. totalization benefits she'll be deemed to have filed for both benefits, and her spousal rate would be reduced by the portion of her totalization benefit that relates to her U.S. work credits (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0201701225). Furthermore, if she starts drawing before full retirement age, her benefit rate will be reduced for age.

Best, Jerry