Social Security retirement benefits for a widow
My husband is 84 and I am 76. He receives Social Security and I have IL Teacher’s Retirement benefits. If he dies, am I still eligible for any Social Security survivor benefits, or is there some kind of “you can’t get two monthly pay-outs, you just get whichever one is larger” rule?
Terry Says
You will be eligible for “some” of his benefits– but instead of the WEP, you’ll be hit by the GPO — government pension offset. So, they will reduce your benefits by up to two-thirds of your teacher’s pension. You get your own retirement benefit, plus any excess.
Here’s how it works: They will take his current benefit, and subtract 2/3 of YOUR pension benefit, and give you the difference. So, for example, if your teacher’s pension is $3,000 (and his current SS is also $3,000) when he dies, they will subtract $2,000 and give you the $1,000 from his SS.
And if he only had a $2,000 SS monthly check, you would get nothing!!
Expert Laurence Kotlikoff (author of Money Magic reviewed in my columns section) says this is one way the government penalizes lower income workers who have smaller Social Security checks — and thus the survivor SS benefits are limited.
