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My wife is a school teacher and does not pay social security. They contribute to Teacher Retirement.  If I die can she receive my social security?

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It all depends on how much she receives in teacher's retirement. If she has a pension from non-covered employment (where she did not pay SS taxes), her spousal or survivor benefits from SS will be reduced by an amount equal to 2/3 of her teacher's pension. This is from a provision call the Government Pension Offset. 

For example, if her teacher's pension is $3,000, she would be subject to a reduction of $2,000 on any Social Security survivor or spousal benefits. In many cases, this completely wipes out SS. 

I've written about this in my book, The Hero's Penalty.

There are also several articles on this site which may help you:
Teachers Retirement and Social Security

What You Should Know About The Government Pension Offset

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This is such an unfair provision!  I am in this situation. My husband is a public educator and I am as well. He pays into SS and I do not. I just found out after all these years that I will not receive his SS if he dies because I am a teacher and collect a pension. I don't know how this can be call "double dipping" when he has paid into SS his entire career and we have been married the entire time. In my opinion this is just another way to screw public educators. Our pensions have been reduced significantly in RI and now I find out I will not get my husband's SS should he pass away even though he has paid into it his entire life. My pension alone will not sustain me in my elder years. This is so frustrating and unfair to teachers in our situation!

 

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6 hours ago, RGuertin said:

This is such an unfair provision!  I am in this situation. My husband is a public educator and I am as well. He pays into SS and I do not. I just found out after all these years that I will not receive his SS if he dies because I am a teacher and collect a pension. I don't know how this can be call "double dipping" when he has paid into SS his entire career and we have been married the entire time. In my opinion this is just another way to screw public educators. Our pensions have been reduced significantly in RI and now I find out I will not get my husband's SS should he pass away even though he has paid into it his entire life. My pension alone will not sustain me in my elder years. This is so frustrating and unfair to teachers in our situation!

 

I have no idea if this will be possible for you, but you can get a spousal or survivors SS benefit if you spend the last 60 months working for an employer where you contribute to the same retirement plan and social security. You have to be very careful doing this! Read more about this at my article https://socialsecurityintelligence.com/the-government-pension-offset/  

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