robin1234

True, and of course many people subject to WEP may be US Citizens only. For instance my wife is a US citizen, in receipt of her UK OAP, and she will be subject to WEP when she starts to get her US SS.

If the UK introduced an equivalent to WEP, I'm not sure how the two countries would reconcile the systems so people were treated fairly..

dunroving

I've been reading up a lot on the economy (I can recommend Robert Peston's latest book) and can only see governments getting more and more desparate. There seems to be a tone currently of suggesting penalties for people who have been responsible and saved, invested, been frugal ... it's called means-testing (hybrid version exist, but they all come down to penalising people who worked hard and didn't spend all their money).

Re: WEP, I could understand a penalty for years in which both US SS and UK NI were paid (sort of a "can't have your cake and eat it" approach), but for people who paid into the systems in different years, I don't see the logic.

I could see an introduction of something akin to WEP in the UK - higher penalties on people who have additional non-government pensions (i.e., taxing, reducing, maybe removing completely, people's UK state pension if they have other pension income).

Having said that, they really need to do something about the majority of unsustainable public sector pensions that are funded by the taxpayer.

robin1234

There's an article in the Daily Telegraph today, saying that the government hopes in the future to prevent foreign spouses of British pensioners drawing the British State Pension. Another example of clutching at straws to try to save some relatively small amount of money (I think they quoted forty million pounds a year..)

dunroving

Yes, I vaguely recall something on Radio 5 Live this morning (I have it running while I wake up) and they were referring to someone who lives overseas and has never been to Britain, and how she shouldn't receive her husband's British pension if she has never lived here ... or maybe that was a BE post I read ... it all blurs into one these days, especially in the wee small hours.

J.JsOH

I have a real life recent example of USA social security WEP that may interest people.
In receipt of US SS received monthly US$791
Then UK occupational pensions started monthly £200, or approx $308 at $1.54/£1
Reported the non-SS £200/$308 pension and US SS $791 is WEP'd to $729, a WEP amount of $62.
So even though WEP reduction could potentially be up to 50% of the non-SS pension here the damage was only about 20% deduction of the value of the non-SS pension.
So not as bad as we feared.

Perth

Speaking of pensions, I know you can receive US SS in the UK but can you receive a UK pension while living in the US?

robin1234

Yes, my wife is now getting her British State Pension, and we live in the US. Several people here on BE are doing so, I believe.

In my wife's case, they deposit it in our Isle of Man pound sterling account, but they can just as easily send it to a US account, I think. They wrote to her a few months before she became eligible with a very simple form to apply for it. We actually did nothing for a year, and eventually sent the form in. They wrote back promptly with an estimate of the amount she would receive, now they deposit the amount in the bank account every 13 weeks, I.e. four times a year.

Perth

Mmm, nice to know - in case it takes me a little longer than planned to get back

dunroving

Good job the £/$ is where it is at the moment - if it had been at $2=£1 (as it was about 5 years ago), you'd have been worse off. Apparently, the dollar amount they take into account for your non-US SS pension stays at whatever it was when you started receiving it ... regardless of subsequent changes in the exchange rate.

Perth

What did you decide on in the end?