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Can I Collect A Spousal Or Survivor Benefit?
Calif school teacher. Retired Strs pension term limit is 3/31/23 can I collect spousal ss survivors benefit?
Hi. I don't know what you mean by a term limit, but if you receive a government pension (or lump sum payment in lieu of a pension) that's based on your earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes, then any Social Security spousal or survivor benefits for which you qualify would likely be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your non-Social Security covered government pension. That's due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).
Therefore, assuming that you do receive a non-covered government pension, then you'd probably only be able to collect Social Security spousal or survivor benefits if the amount of those benefits is more than 2/3rds of the amount of your non-covered government pension.
Best, Jerry