SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Revision to the Government Pension Offset Exemption Should Be Considered.

摘要

This report addresses your request for information on the Government Pension Offset (GPO) exemption. Generally, Social Security benefits are payable to the spouses of retired, disabled, or deceased workers covered by Social Security. These benefits often provide income to wives and husbands who have little or no Social Security benefits of their own. If both spouses worked in positions covered by Social Security, each may not receive both the benefits earned as a worker and the full spousal benefit; rather the worker receives the higher amount of the two. However, until 1977, workers receiving pensions from government positions not covered by Social Security could receive their full pension benefit and their full Social Security spousal benefits as if they were nonworking spouses. At that time, legislation was enacted' creating a GPO, to equalize the treatment of workers covered by Social Security and those with noncovered government pensions. The GPO prevented workers from receiving a full spousal benefit on top of a pension earned from noncovered government employment. However, the law provides an exemption from the GPO if an individual's last day of state/local employment is in a position that is covered by both Social Security and the state/local government pension system. In these cases, the GPO will not be applied to the Social Security spousal benefit. The intent of the 'last- day' exemption is unclear in the legislation.