thekingscotts

I have trolled through the postings on this topic but have not been able to get a clear answer to my question so advice here would be much appreciated!

I had the option whilst working in the UK to voluntarily contribute to a final salary scheme to which i did. This will start to pay in a couple of years time.

Whilst I am clear that when I start to claim my UK state pension that this will impact my US Social Security via WEP, am I correct that my UK company pension is not WEP impacting as it was a private voluntary scheme?

Thanks!

lansbury

I think you will find that it is countable for WEP. You paid money from your salary for a pension based on your salary. A UK company pension does count against WEP, as my wife found out, the fact you made voluntary contributions I don't think changes anything.

thekingscotts

Thanks for the info. I had the impression from reading the SS.Gov website that the component of a pension that was based on voluntary contributions was not counted for WEP and as the whole of this pension was voluntarily contributed to it may not count. Certainly this stuff isn't clear from the .gov info.......

nun

The voluntary contribution exception only counts for state pension payments, so you've sort of got it backwards. Any UK private pension you have that was paid for with non US SS earnings is included in the WEP calculation. Any portion of your UK state pension that is from voluntary contributions is not included for WEP. You could argue that if you are getting the new flat rate state pension that is not related to earnings at all that that is not included in WEP either.