As for the GPO, it affects members who apply for SS spousal benefits, based upon their husband’s or wife’s work record under the program, and fail to satisfy two exceptions. Members must either be eligible for their public pension before December 1982 and meet all requirements for SS spousal benefits in effect in January 1977 (i.e., husband received one-half support from his wife), or be eligible for their pension before July 1, 1983 and receiving one-half support from his or her spouse.

Unless a member satisfies one of these two exceptions, then the amount of their SS spousal benefits will be reduced by two-thirds of their public pension. For example, if your pension is $9,000 and you’re eligible for $6,000 in SS spousal benefits, two-thirds of your pension ($6,000) would unfortunately reduce your SS benefits to zero. Even if you do not receive actual benefits, you can still be covered by Medicare at age 65.

As for the WEP, this law affects members who apply for their own (not spousal) SS benefits and fail to satisfy certain exceptions. Principal among the exceptions is that members, who were eligible for their public pension before January 1, 1986 (i.e., 20/more years of service under age 55, or 10/more years over 55) or have at least 30 years of substantial coverage under Social Security, are exempt from the WEP.

If a member doesn’t satisfy the exceptions, then they are subject to the WEP, meaning that their SS benefits will be calculated using a different formula. Under that different formula, instead of receiving 90% of the first $561, which the member earned on the average each month (in this case, $505), the member would receive only 40% of their first $561 ($224) - more than 55% less!

Needless to say, in terms of dollars and cents, a member would see a substantial reduction in their actual SS benefits.