lansbury

The law bring in WEP was passed in 1983. What you really mean is you assumed something without bothering to check how SS was calculated or paid. The information about the WEP are quite well detailed on the SS web site and published leaflets.

mrken30

Especially Panama

Lechtenberg

If you are over retirement age I didn't think you could buy any more credits to enhance your UK pension.

Pulaski

I believe that is correct, but I wasn't sure of the age of the person asking, and at very least it might help someone else reading the thread.

Lechtenberg

Are these increased amounts added to a basic premium, or are they the actual amount you would pay if your income falls in one of these brackets.

Lechtenberg

Because they are detailed doesn't make them fair. I feel I'm caught up in a system designed to deal with others problems. Being aware of something doesn't make it right. Having worked to earn my money, paid all my taxes and paid into both countries pension systems. It definitely feels as if my contributions are being stolen. I realize a lot of ex pats don't report their pensions. I did and look where honesty got me.

nun

WEP was put in place for state and government workers. The US SS system pays proportionally more to people with lower life time incomes. An incomplete US work history because of non SS earnings makes your average US lifetime income artificially low and your SS check too big. Honesty prevented you from defrauding the US government and taxpayers.

As for Medicare, the premiums go up for the wealthy. Comfort yourself with the thought that you have far more than most people in the US even after paying more for Medicare, you are helping people with less money than you "noblesse oblige".

lansbury

The UK DWP and SSA exchange information, for example SSA will tell DWP when your death is reported to the SSA. So those not reporting UK DWP pension run a risk. WEP as others have said is designed to stop people who receive non SS pensions from receiving a higher SS than they would because lower income recorded by the SS system. It effects many of us.

Nutmegger

The actual premiums (for Part B).

Giantaxe

You can buy credits for six years in arrears. I think if any of those years are before your state retirement age, you can buy credit for them even if at the time of buying you are past retirement age.

Pulaski

And your evidence for that statement is ..... ?

Lechtenberg

A number of people have told me they don't report there pensions because the US gov. Takes a chunk of them away. I know it's illegal, but I can't say I blame them.
As far as my being lucky my husband and I have more money than most. It has nothing to do with luck. It has to do with working hard. Both in school and life. We, don't have anything we didn't earn. It wasn't a "windfall". Neither of us came from wealthy families. No one gave us free money. And as far as I'm concerned I didn't pay into the system for it to be given randomly to someone else, who quite possible is in need because they don't want to work. If I want to give some of my hard earned money away I'd rather choose who It goes to so that I can make sure its someone deserving of it.

Pulaski

Overall, I am inclined to agree with you, and the way the wind is blowing, people who have pensions they aren't declaring may get an ugly shock in the not-too-distant future.

lansbury

In your original post you didn't say anything about your husbands SS. How many years has he paid into it, and is he subject to WEP?

kodokan

Agreed - given the current climate about declaring foreign assets, I would've thought it'd be very likely for someone to realize that most nation states pay pensions, so if someone moved to the US during their adulthood, chances are there's a foreign pension lurking in the background. All the necessary information to work this out is already in the government computers.