monkeybrains

Hi,
I made my Social Security application about 5 weeks ago and received the following request for information today....does it look like a standard request for more information to anyone whos applied for SS on line before ?

Please call our office before Friday, October 28, 2016 and ask for XXXX The telephone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. We need to talk to you about:

Reviewing your earnings record

The month you can begin receiving benefits.

Your business or self employment

Your entitlement to a pension based on work not covered under Social Security.

Your claim for Social Security benefits.

When you call our office, please have this letter with you. It will help us to serve you more quickly.

lansbury

Yes that is standard. Call, if you get an answering machine leave a message, your SS application with be dealt with in that phone call. Both of ours were fully completed that way.

monkeybrains

Your entitlement to a pension based on work not covered under Social Security.
??????

kodokan

This will be to calculate WEP, the Windfall Elimination Program (many references and discussions on here). If you've earned a US government pension, or a foreign pension, from earnings on which FICA wasn't paid, it'll reduce the amount of SS you get. There's a calculator to estimate this on the SS website.

monkeybrains

Thank you.

monkeybrains

Thank you.

monkeybrains

Hi All,
I called the Social Security and finally got through,the nice lady took all my details and asked me if I was receiving a pension in the UK,I told her I was and told her how much I was getting,ok she said....because you are receiving a UK state pension the US Social Security dept will have to reduce the amount we pay you....but first we will need to see your birth certificate and your letter from the UK pension verifying what you receive(Im in the process of doing this)

Heres my question.
Will the UK pension dept now reduce my UK pension based on the fact that I will be receiving Social Security from the U.S ?

Thank you.

nun

No

monkeybrains

Thank you Nun.....not that Im complaining...but why not,can you explain why they wouldnt reduce the UK pension?
Thank you.

Pulaski

Because the British state pension is not means tested or contingent on other sources of income, and is, more or less, a flat rate unlike US Social Security which is paid as a function of your earnings.

US social security is more generous but is skewed to helping the lowest income people most and so the US introduced a system to claw back some of the money paid to those with less than a complete (30+ years) Social Security contribution history because Social Security was unduly generous to them IF they had other pension arrangements.

monkeybrains

Pulaski, thank you Sir for your reply and putting my mind at rest today

Pulaski

You're welcome.

Asg123

Not all that you receive may count towards WEP, eg I've read in several posts here that the part of the pension resulting from your contributions while in the US doesn't count towards WEP. So make sure they are aware and take into account only the part that counts towards WEP.

lansbury

Just to clarify. It isn't where you were/are when you make the contributions, it is the fact the contributions were voluntary and not deducted from salary. Any part of the UK State pension derived from voluntary contributions does not count towards the calculation of WEP.

Pulaski

If I might add, hopefully to clarify, pensions that are WEP deductible are those paid for with income which was not subject to Social Security taxes. So if your British State Pension was paid for with 14 years of actual or deemed contributions while in the UK, 10 years of voluntary contributions while working in, say, Germany, and 12 years of voluntary contrubutions while living in the US then one third (12/36) of your State Pension would not be WEPable, because one third of it was paid for with contributions that were subject to US Social Security taxes.