Social Security "benefits"

[3S16]

After working 32 years in law enforcement, I was finally able to retire with a decent pension. I had paid into Soc. Sec. before I went into the Job, and after retirement. I have more than the required Soc. Sec. units for retirement benefits.
Long story short, I turned 62 and filed for Soc. Sec.. Instead of the $899 a month that I earned, I was "awarded" $287 (which included my Viet Nam service bonus of $100) due to some "windfall" B.S because I have a public service pension.
I heard that there was some effort being made in Congress to do away with this and allow public service retirees to collect the full amount of Social Security that they earned. Does anyone have any knowlege of this?

[non sequitur]

Social Security Administration Windfall Elimination

The Bill died in Congressional Committee...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr2797

http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n2/v68n2p21.html

Congrats on your retirement.

[TML]

Really pisses me off to hear this... and hopefully they turn it around... but congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your many years of service.

[MaHoTex]

Same deal with my wife who is a teacher. She worked for amny year in the private sector paying to SS and will not be able to get it either. To make it even worse, I am in the private sector and have paid into SS for many years. When I kick the bucket (assuming I kill over before her) since she is a public employee with STRS, she will not be able to receive 1 cent of the SS I have paid into my entire life. It really makes me angry...

[Spanky8601]

After working 32 years in law enforcement, I was finally able to retire with a decent pension. I had paid into Soc. Sec. before I went into the Job, and after retirement. I have more than the required Soc. Sec. units for retirement benefits.
Long story short, I turned 62 and filed for Soc. Sec.. Instead of the $899 a month that I earned, I was "awarded" $287 (which included my Viet Nam service bonus of $100) due to some "windfall" B.S because I have a public service pension.
I heard that there was some effort being made in Congress to do away with this and allow public service retirees to collect the full amount of Social Security that they earned. Does anyone have any knowlege of this?

Congratulations on making 32 years. Yeah, basically if you get to retirement age and have the work credits they cut it down to 1/3. The windfall elimination bill has been introduced several times and never really comes up for a vote.

[Eric B]

This is a bummer to hear. I paid into the system for 12 years before I got into LE. What a friggin' waste.

[quikduk]

Not LE here (Gov Emp.) but work with a lot of LE. I paid into the system for over 28 years before going into Pub. Svc. Then I found out that although my eligibility is around $1400/mo, I can only get 5/9ths of the total or something like that.

If I had been allowed to opt out of SS early on (which I asked), I could have retired years ago on the investment.

I hope someday they change this law retroactively to time of conversion from private to public sector service but I am not holding my breath...yet.

On a side note, thank you all to those of you that served and continue to serve.

[3S16]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. "It was the best of times - It was the worst of times." Oh wait, someone else already used that line!

[Zenja]

Government theft

[AdiosKali]

More like re-distribution of wealth.

[theshoer]

Sorry to hear that.

[rolncode3]

Our pension tables include the social security reduction value, but its tough to visualize what it means until I hear stories like this.

[Caddis]

I'm in the same boat and will retire soon and when I turn 62, my government will punish me for being successful and working hard to secure a pension so I don't have to live off the government subsidies by taking about half of my earned SS benefit which I paid into.

[code_blue]

I thought that the current working generation pays the SS benefits for current retirees.

There isn't a pool of money that you paid into. You're SS contributions determine the value of your pot, but it is not stored for your like a 401k.

Isn't this correct?

Also, darn SSI screwing people over. I don't even know how honorable people are supposed to benefit off it.

[sfbay]

Who was against this? As in, which of our elected officials was anti public service.