GREGORY CHANDLER--ELIMINATION OF WINDFALLS IN GOVERNMENT BENEFITS

A basic element of government benefits schemes are anti-windfall provisions. 
For example, in Rabanal v. Colvin, 2013 WL 5692231 (D. Colo.), a social
security claimant's benefits from a Spanish pension program were based on his
status as a citizen of Spain, and thus, the Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration could not apply the Social Security Act's windfall elimination
provision (WEP) to recompute and reduce the retirement benefits to which the
claimant was entitled by virtue of the claimant's Spanish citizenship. 


The WEP was enacted to prevent individuals who earned wages from both
covered and non-covered employment from receiving an unwarranted
windfall.  However, the claimant's receipt of the benefits from Spain was not
based on any of his earnings but rather on the fact that he was a Spanish
citizen. 

Therefore, before applying for government benefits in the United States, an
individual, or the individual's attorney, should consider any factors that might
be viewed as a windfall.   It may, for example, be wise to delay applying for a
government benefit or to only seek a partial benefit to prevent anti-
windfall provisions from being a factor. 

For example, an individual receiving veterans benefits may choose to
seek only a partial amount of social security benefits because of the possibility
of a financial windfall. 

GREGORY CHANDLER, Attorney at Law