Is There a Method to Offset Social Security Benefits of a Privately Employed Spouse Against Public Retirement Benefits of Spouse Employed by State ? In Harshbarger v. Harshbarger, 158 Ohio App. 3d 121, 2004 Ohio 3919, 814 N.E.2d 105, the domestic relations court, confronted with a like set of facts, offset against the public employees' retirement benefit of one spouse the amount of a hypothetical Social Security retirement benefit she would have received had she been entitled to one. Id. at P9. The court then divided the remaining net amount of the public employees' retirement benefit between the parties equally. Id. The Court held that the court should have instead offset against the public employees' retirement benefit the amount of the Social Security retirement benefit the other spouse actually receives, and then divided the net balance of the public employees' retirement benefit equally between the parties. Id. at P23-29. In Harshbarger v. Harshbarger, 158 Ohio App. 3d 121, 2004 Ohio 3919, 814 N.E.2d 105, at P23, a "method in which the Social Security benefits of a privately employed spouse are offset against the public retirement benefits of a spouse employed by the State" was endorsed. Further, this court has previously found an abuse of discretion when a trial court failed to consider the type of offset described in Harshbarger. See Hardy v. Hardy, Montgomery App. No. 20865, 2005 Ohio 5528. The Hardy court opined that "it is the public employee retirant's ineligibility for Social Security that justifies an offset of Social Security retirement the other spouse receives." Id. at P15.