Recently
What's Best for Mom in a Mom-and-Pop Business?
Q: My wife and I are in our 30s. We're partners in a business that nets us about $80,000 per year. What's the best way to report our income on our tax returns to maximize our Social Security benefits?
A: Even though you're asking about your future …Read more.
Bleeding Hearts and Bootstraps
Q: I was surprised by the woman who wrote to you and said that people living on a small amount of Social Security were just lazy. Let me share my story to help this callous woman understand why people like me don't get very much from Social Security.…Read more.
Don't Base Critical Decisions on Prophets of Doom
Q: I'm about to turn 66. I want to put off starting my Social Security until age 70 because if I do, I'll get an extra $600 or so per month in a delayed retirement bonus added to by Social Security checks. But my husband said I should take my Social …Read more.
Geezers and Floozies
Q: I'm part of a group of old geezers who gets together every week at the local coffee place. Social Security is a frequent topic of conversation. At our last meeting, the subject of benefits for divorcees came up.
One of our geezers was married to …Read more.
more articles
|
Sometimes a Columnist is Right, and Social Security is WrongNote to my readers:
About 95 percent of working people in this country pay into Social Security. The other 5 percent are exempt from paying Social Security taxes for a variety of reasons. Among that small group are teachers in a handful of states like California, Texas -- and as we'll learn in this week's column -- Missouri. And to help you understand what this column is talking about, you should know that a spouse can be due up to one-half of the primary earning spouse's Social Security. For example, if I get $1,000 in a monthly Social Security retirement benefit, my wife is potentially due up to $500 per month as a dependent wife on my record. Q: I'm a retired teacher from Missouri. As you maybe know, most teachers in Missouri don't pay into Social Security. I get about $5,000 per month from our teacher's retirement system. But my wife worked at a job where she did pay into Social Security. She gets about $1,200 in a monthly Social Security retirement benefit. Am I due any husband's benefits on her record? A: No. The law treats your teacher's pension as if it were a Social Security retirement pension. And Social Security retirement pensions have always offset spousal benefits. For example, my neighbor, Sam, gets $2,000 per month from Social Security. His wife, Nancy, also gets a Social Security benefit. Her rate is the same as your wife's Social Security -- about $1,200 per month. Sam can't receive a husband's benefit on Nancy's Social Security record because his own Social Security benefit offsets it dollar for dollar. And for that matter, Nancy can't get any benefits as a wife on Sam's record because her $1,200 benefit is more than her potential spousal benefit. The law, it's called the "government pension offset," actually cuts teachers like you a bit of slack. Instead of a dollar for dollar offset, teachers who receive pensions from jobs that were not covered by Social Security have a three for two offset.
A SHORT TIME AFTER E-MAILING AN ANSWER TO THIS PERSON, HE SENT ME A FOLLOW-UP: Q: I actually had already applied for husband's benefits from Social Security. And I just received a letter from the Social Security Administration telling me I'm due about $600 per month in husband's benefits. I just called their 800 number. A representative told me that if I got an official letter from them, then I must be due the money. What's going on here? A: I really think you got incorrect information from SSA. I strongly recommend you make an appointment to visit your local Social Security office. Ask to speak to a supervisor or manager. Make sure he or she understands you are getting a pension from a job that was not covered by Social Security. A FEW DAYS LATER, I RECEIVED ANOTHER E-MAIL FROM THE RETIRED MISSOURI TEACHER: Q: Well, I went to the Social Security office and talked to the manager. And you were right! Because of my teacher's pension, I was not due any husband's benefits on my wife's record. They have cancelled my claim for benefits. But now I wonder: If you had never told me to do this, would I have gotten Social Security benefits I wasn't due for the rest of my life? (I don't know if I should thank you or not!) A: The Social Security Administration matches their records with other retirement system's computers. So somewhere down the road, SSA computers and Missouri teacher's retirement computers would have talked to each other. And eventually SSA would have realized its mistake. Probably a year or two down the road, you would have gotten a benefit termination letter and a demand to repay all the Social Security benefits that were incorrectly paid to you. If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at thomas.margenau@comcast.net. To find out more about Tom Margenau and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
