I have the required 40 quarters at low income to earn a small amount of social security before taking WEP into consideration. I will turn 68 this year so have not yet applied. I spent the bulk of my career in both the federal and international civil service with a non-SSA pension, so the WEP would have applied to me. As far as I was able to determine, it would have taken me down to around $200 a month, or just enough to cover the Medicare Part B (that my former employer requires I have as primary insurance in order to stay in the employer after-service health care plan).
The repeal of WEP is good news because I presume it means I will receive the unreduced amount as shown on SSA.gov. Currently, it states I could receive $568 a month now at age 67 and 7 months, or $669 a month if I delay to age 70. Even with WEP, I was thinking about applying to start benefits now, if for no other reason than to cover Medicare Part B and not have to make those quarterly payments for it.
If I enter the numbers in opensocialsecurity.com *and* say I am married with a spouse who has -0- earnings (-0- PIA), it tells me to wait until I'm 70 to apply because the potential joint earnings if he eventually earns spousal benefits will be greatest.
If I enter the numbers and say I'm single, it tells me to start taking the benefits now.
Here is my question:
My husband has never had U.S. based income so has never contributed to social security. We lived abroad until we retired and he did not have a green card while we lived abroad, so as advised by my CPA, I filed US taxes as married filing separately. He only got his green card after he retired abroad and no longer had any earned income from any source. Of course, once he got his green card, followed by U.S. citizenship, we've filed jointly and reported all income (basically my pension and our joint investments). So no contribution to social security for him at any time.
Would he eventually be entitled to spousal benefits based on my earnings? Currently, I am 67 and he is 58. Opensocialsecurity recommends I wait until I'm 70 to apply and then he apply at 62, but I don't know if this is valid since he never lived/worked in the U.S. nor was a citizen until after he was retired.
The repeal of WEP is good news because I presume it means I will receive the unreduced amount as shown on SSA.gov. Currently, it states I could receive $568 a month now at age 67 and 7 months, or $669 a month if I delay to age 70. Even with WEP, I was thinking about applying to start benefits now, if for no other reason than to cover Medicare Part B and not have to make those quarterly payments for it.
If I enter the numbers in opensocialsecurity.com *and* say I am married with a spouse who has -0- earnings (-0- PIA), it tells me to wait until I'm 70 to apply because the potential joint earnings if he eventually earns spousal benefits will be greatest.
If I enter the numbers and say I'm single, it tells me to start taking the benefits now.
Here is my question:
My husband has never had U.S. based income so has never contributed to social security. We lived abroad until we retired and he did not have a green card while we lived abroad, so as advised by my CPA, I filed US taxes as married filing separately. He only got his green card after he retired abroad and no longer had any earned income from any source. Of course, once he got his green card, followed by U.S. citizenship, we've filed jointly and reported all income (basically my pension and our joint investments). So no contribution to social security for him at any time.
Would he eventually be entitled to spousal benefits based on my earnings? Currently, I am 67 and he is 58. Opensocialsecurity recommends I wait until I'm 70 to apply and then he apply at 62, but I don't know if this is valid since he never lived/worked in the U.S. nor was a citizen until after he was retired.
Statistics: Posted by csm — Mon Jan 06, 2025 12:05 pm