Survivor Benefits and WEP. Hi. My wife is 14 years younger and has WEP eligible retirement savings. I have always worked in jobs that pay into SS, so I have no WEP eligible retirement savings. What impact will this situation have on survivor benefits for my wife? Is there any WEP considered/calculated on her survivor benefit?

Hi,

WEP doesn't affect survivor benefits, but if the non-covered pension plan that your will be receiving is based on her work for a governmental agency (federal, state, municipal, or county), then her survivor benefits could be subject to full or partial offset based on the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. When applicable, GPO results in the offset of Social Security auxiliary or survivor benefits (e.g. spousal, widow) at a rate of 2/3rds of the gross amount of the person's non-covered government pension (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

Our maximization software handles both the WEP and GPO provisions, so you and your wife may want to strongly consider using it to do your Social Security planning.

Best, Jerry