4/22/2015 – Pensioners risk overestimating Social Security benefits (Reuters)

Some U.S. workers who have paid into the Social Security system are in for a rude awakening when the checks start coming: Their benefits could be chopped up to $413 per month.That is the maximum potential cut for 2015 stemming from the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), a little-understood rule that was signed into law in 1983 to prevent double-dipping from both Social Security and public sector pensions. A sister rule called the Government Pension Offset (GPO) can result in even sharper cuts to spousal and survivor benefits. WEP affected about 1.5 million Social Security beneficiaries in 2012, and another 568,000 were hit by the GPO, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). Most of those affected are teachers and employees of state and local government.

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