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Christian

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A client recently widowed her husband died in January last year called me. He was a railroad retiree for twenty or so years. She had worked as a fast food manager for fifteen or so. He also held a part time job at the local army fort for twenty years and was employed there until he died at age ninety. Last year they received a W-2, a railroad Tier 1 and Tier 2 pension for him, railroad Tier 2 pension for her, a Norfolk Southern Pension for him (a company plan offered to employees many moons ago but no longer available), a union pension for her from her work in the garment industry locally, an IRA payment for her, and lastly Social Security for her based on her years as a fast food manager. Since he worked under Social Security at the army base she thought she would draw a separate Social Security benefit from that. Here's how it all shook out.

Her railroad retirement benefits were raised to what his were for Tier 1 and Tier 2. Social Security would not pay any benefit for his twenty years work at the army base nor add in his work record there to his record on the railroad which would have greatly increased his widow's railroad benefit. Her Social Security benefit was discontinued totally even though she earned it herself. She still gets half his Norfolk Southern Pension benefit and her tiny union pension along with her small IRA benefit. Personally I am mystified as to how this was arrived at and place it here to possibly see if anyone has a direction she can take to obtain a better deal. The Railroad Retirement and Social Security reps basically threw up their hands out of ignorance as what was to be done. Some professional somewhere would likely effect a much better deal for her but I have no expertise with any of this. Anyone have any ideas. 

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Here is a start, but I wouldn't try to unravel this by myself.  SS is the oldest entitlement program and goes back 85 years.  During that time it has managed to create volumes of byzantine, ambiguous and contradictory rules and regulations, all written in legalese. What your client needs to do is consult an attorney that specializes in SS benefits. 

 https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/what-if-im-eligible-both-railroad-retirement-and-social-security

 

 

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That is pretty much the answer I was thinking about. I'll pass that on to her as she can use the assistance. In reading your reference above I find much in agreement to other material I have read namely that she will not receive a dual benefit only the higher of the two. Still a good attorney versed in the law may be able to get her a better deal. It still begs the question of why she cannot draw the benefit she earned herself which she was already drawing for a number of years. I find as I grow older I really try to help those of my clients who have fallen into some form of governmental black hole such as this one.

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  • 2 weeks later...
32 minutes ago, joanmcq said:

I think she can either draw his benefit or her own but not both.  At least this is my understanding of the whole mess.  But why SS/RR wouldn't add in the 20 years of SS that he paid into at the army base I don't know.

You can take RRB, or SS, but not both.  Congress tried to change this 20 years ago under HR1140 which passed the House, but it died in the Senate.

 

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P. S. Y'all were absolutely correct. She draws his RRB benefit only Tier 1 and Tier 2. He got no increased RRB from the contributions he made to SS. Both SS reps and RRB reps disavowed any knowledge of the other systems functioning. While he was living she drew her portion of his RRB Tier 2 benefit and her own SS benefit which was greater than her portion of his RRB Tier 1 benefit she could draw. After his death his full RRB Tier 1 benefit was greater than her SS benefit so her SS benefit was discontinued. Both the RRB reps and the SS reps had no clue how or if his payments into SS could be added to his RRB contributions to increase the RRB. I knew the dual benefit status had been eliminated years ago as an Aunt had drawn both her husband's RRB benefit and her own SS benefit which she earned as a teacher but this was many years back. It's interesting to see how this finally worked out. Many thanks for your input. 

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