A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about something called the “government pension offset.” It is a law that essentially says this: If you get a pension from a job that wasn’t covered by Social Security, that pension will be treated just like a Social Security retirement pension and it will be used to offset any benefits you might be due on a spouse’s Social Security record.
There is a companion law called the “windfall elimination provision,” more commonly known by its acronym, WEP, which usually reduces any Social Security retirement benefits earned at side jobs by folks who spent the bulk of their life working at a job that was not covered by Social Security. Most folks impacted by WEP despise the law—until they understand why it exists.
