As part of Thanksgiving, I am going to thank all the federal employees who have been working under stressful conditions, including during the shutdown.
This post is a public service announcement. When I attended the Retirees’ Reunion in Missoula, it happened that I spent an evening with former coworkers. A topic of discussion that came up was getting Social Security Benefits and how that interacted with OPM pensions. It turns out that the rules have changed. I’m a widow and was told by the Social Security folks when my husband died in 2012 that I couldn’t get his Social Security because I was getting a federal pension at a certain level. I accepted this and went on.
Thanks to my former coworkers (many, many thanks!), I found out that the rules had changed, but the Social Security Administration did not notify people impacted.. you had to figure it out by paying attention- which I clearly hadn’t. When you reapply, they go back six months, not the whole time period, so it pays to get your application in as soon as possible.
As it happens, I did all this during the shutdown and even visited the local Social Security office to turn in forms. The employees there were great.. acknowledged that things had slowed down and some things weren’t being done, but were very helpful nonetheless. Finally, somehow Social Security and OPM communicated (without help from me) and changed it so that Medicare payments are switched from my pension to Social Security without a period of double payments.
Anyway, if you are in this situation or know of someone who might be, it would be worth it to check. Maybe it’s highly unusual. Maybe it’s an artifact of the CSRS system which is not used by newer employees. But it can make a serious difference in peoples’ income, so there’s that.
The Government pension Offset (GPO) law was passed in 1977 basically saying if you received a gov. pension for work not covered by SS deductions, including state and local govs, your ss payment would, as widow or widower, be reduced with certain exceptions.
The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) law was passed in 1986 and became effective on 1/1/1987. (Same for FERS replacing CSRS.) Again, it reduced ss entitlement due to gov pension with certain exceptions.
Now since both applied to me when I applied for ss and after my wife passed my initial ss payment was reduced (I had my 40 quarters) and I did not get the widowers payment bump.
Now the good news (? depending on your view point). Law passed in Dec 2024 effective 1/1/2025 eliminated both reductions.
Anyway with no action on my part, I received notice from SSA that my payment would be increased due to that law. I received back pay on 3/10/25 and the new monthly started in May. Odd fact they moved my payment to 2nd week of the month because that is when my wife got hers. Mine was 4th week which is determined by the birthday in the month.
When you retired SSA should have marked your record as subject to WEP. Also don’t know about the timing, but GPO should have been also noted if you applied for widows benefit and “death benefit”
Long winded but I’m FS retiree in CSRS with experience as a timber beast, personnel and IS arenas.
If wondering why I know so much, my wife was a SSA CSR so I learned lots about SS in the evenings at lunch (worked in same building), diners and evenings.
Thanks much, Charles, for the additional info.
In my case, I retired a few months after my husband died. They definitely didn’t notify me.. I wonder why. I think I’ll ask their media desk.