I am 61 and currently receiving a pension from the County. My ex (married for 15 years) died. I was thinking of taking the survivor benefit now and taking my SS at 70 (I definitely made more money than him). Will SS count my pension as income?

Hi,

No, pension income doesn't count for purposes of the Social Security earnings test. However, if your pension from the county is based on your earnings and you didn't pay Social Security taxes on those earnings, then your survivor benefits could be at least partially offset due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

Your best filing strategy depends on the comparative amounts of your survivor benefit and your own Social Security retirement benefit, and whether or not your survivor benefit will be subject to GPO. You should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully compare all of your options so that you can determine the best overall strategy for claiming your benefits.

Best, Jerry