Pulaski

Thank you, that's good to know, though as I will reach 30 years of SS contributions a couple of years before I expect to retire, it probably won't impact me, unless for some reason if I retire earlier than planned.

Giantaxe

30 years of substantial income. Substantial is defined as $29,700 for 2023. I realize "substantial" been stated above, but wanted to make sure that people understand that that amount is substantially (ha!) more than the amount that gets you four credits in a year.

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf

mellyj

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Just a quick thank-you to everyone who replied to me about this last year.

I did as suggested and submitted an application to the FBU at the US Embassy in London and I am now receiving a small payment every month. It's only a few hundred pounds monthly but certainly better than nothing! I do not begin to understand the WEP thing but when i had my phone interview with the FBU, I was told that it didn't apply to me....

The thing that totally blew my mind was that my husband, who has never worked or lived in the US is apparently also able to claim for a pension, half of what i get. He's still working part-time but when he retires we will be exploring this one further!

Thanks again.

Pulaski

Thank you. Ah well, that means one more year to escape WEP for me, but still a milestone I will pass before I reach retirement age, so not really a big deal, for me at least.

leuler

I believe that though WEP is first calculated at the age you retire - it is recalculated each year after that for the primary person. I don't think you are asked again about foreign pensions, but if you have more years of substantial earnings, even after age 70 - then your benefit may increase and your WEP reduced. PIA is based on the highest 35 years of earnings. I believe spousal benefits are based on the PIA of the main taxpayer at age 67 and do not change for subsequent earnings. I "retired" from my full-time job with 23 years of substantial earnings (and full UK state pension) and now have my own business where I aim to earn over the substantial earnings limit ($29,700 in 2023) and reduce the WEP impact for each year.

durham_lad

I certainly hope you are correct. I will continue paying into SS after age 70. I intend to take SS at age 70 in 2 years, at which point I will have 28 years of contributions. If I can make 30 years after age 70 that would be worth about $100/month extra. I don’t suppose any adjustments would be automatic and I’d have to apply again.

Steerpike

I've been following this topic very closely and thought I understood everything so far. But this has confused me (I'm probably just having a brain-fart ...). I understand that you need 30 years of 'Substantial' SS-eligible income (where Substantial is defined as $28,700 per year for 2023) to avoid WEP. And now I see that you only need to earn $6,560 a year to get '4 quarters' of credits. So where do these 'quarters' come into play - what payments/benefits are based on the presence or absence of 'quarters'?

Giantaxe

It’s used both in the formula for calculating the amount of SS you’re entitled to and also in the requirement for 40 quarters for Medicare eligibility.

durham_lad

I thought I would clarify this.

I am fully retired and have been for 13 years now, no paid work at all. I receive both a qualified pension and a non-qualified SERPS pension from from my former employer. The SERPS is paid through their payroll system and is reported on a W2 which means I have to pay Louisiana State income tax on it plus a few years ago the IRS ruled that SERPS recipients have to pay payroll taxes to them so I also pay FICA (SS) and Medicare taxes on that income and will do after age 70. My qualified pension is reported on a 1099-R by a non-Louisiana insurance company so no payroll or State taxes on it.

It is what it is, I’d rather have the SERPS than not.

leuler

The benefit adjustments should be automatic, but may be delayed as self employed earnings are only reported in 1040s the following year. Any adjustments are backdated to that January. Again the WEP calculation adjustment should be automatic but I can't find anything on the SSA website that confirms this (probably as its a rare case), in practice I think they just recalculate if earnings and their standard calculation includes any WEP adjustment.

durham_lad

Thanks for this, very encouraging.

tom169

Received the letter for this years class 2 NIC. Used transferwise again. Worked fine last year, just took a few months for it to register.

geardownflap20

Hi All,
I’ve been trawling the threads looking for information regarding my personal situation.
I’ve been in the US for 10 years, but the first two were on secondment from the UK company. I continued paying UK NI contributions for those two years.
I moved to the US payroll 8 years ago and have paid US Social security; since I’m moving back to the UK in the next 12 months, i will not have made the necessary 40 quarters of Social security to qualify for US Social Security retirement benefits.
I’m already in receipt of my full UK state pension, which I started drawing in June 2022.
I’ve applied for US social security retirement benefits based on my UK contributions for 2014/2015, when I was working here in the US, in addition to my 8 contribution years to make up the full 10 years.
I’m just not sure if I’m entitled to claim Social Security, if so, I understand that I will only receive benefit for the 8 contribution years. Additionally, I’ll be handing back my Green card, so again, I’m not sure whether the WEP provisions will apply (I thought they didn’t apply if you have less than the 10 years)
Any help that anyone can give would be greatly received.
Thanks.

jb82

I believe with the facts as stated that you would qualify for a us social security retirement benefits under the totalization agreement between the US and UK. The calculation is a bit complicated but basically yes it would be small since you only worked for 8 years. I believe they would compute a theoretical pension based on you working for 35 years in the US and then pro rate it to 8 years. Here is an example in case you were interested in the details https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/...n3p1.html#appA

I think that WEP does not apply to totalization benefits. At least not since 1995.

To to clarify I am not an expert nor have I personally been through this so this is just an educated deduction from the SSA manuals and totalization agreement.

Glasgow Girl

I think the totalization agreement only allows you to combine US and UK SS and NI contributions if you don’t have enough in either country to qualify for either social security or the UK state pension, and then if you have enough combined years you can claim in one but not both countries. In other words if you qualified in either the UK or the US for the state pension or social security you cannot use the totalization agreement to make a claim on the other country. To receive social security and the UK state pension you need to qualify for both in their own right.

Therefore WEP is irrelevant in your case.