Q & A
I will be getting a state pension…can I also get Social Security?
Complete Question: I am in the Alaska Teacher’s Retirement system and will eventually retire at around the age of 50-55 with a defined benefit pension plan. We don’t pay into Social Security like a lot of state pension systems. So my question is whether I will get a Social Security check when I am eligible to draw those benefits. I went online to ssa.gov and it says that I have 32 credits and need to attain 40 in order to qualify. But I thought I remember talking to retirees up here who said that if you draw a state pension you don’t get social security. Is this a myth or fact? And if I need 40 credits, how do I get them?
Answer: It really depends on your personal situation. Drawing a state pension in and of itself does not mean that you cannot get Social Security. It does mean that you could have your Social Security benefit reduced due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). Based on the circumstances you described, it sounds like you will be affected by WEP because the only way you won’t be affected by it is if you have at least 30 years of substantial earnings in a job in which you paid Social Security taxes. Since you only have 32 credits right now (the equivalent of 8 years), you may not reach 30 years. However, the more years you pay into Social Security, the smaller your WEP reduction will be.
As for how to earn your additional 8 credits, you can earn one credit per quarter every year; therefore, you can reach your minimum eligibility requirement in 2 years. Every year the amount of earnings needed to earn a credit slightly increases. So in 2015, you can earn 1 credit for earning $1,220 in a job where you pay Social Security (FICA) taxes. Even though the credit is based on a quarter of a year, which causes a maximum of 4 credits per year, the law made it so that you can earn all 4 credits at any point throughout the year. For example, since you are a teacher let’s say you take a summer job where you pay Social Security taxes and during the summer of 2015 you earn $5,000. Even though these earnings were not spread out over 4 quarters, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will give you 4 credits for the year 2015 once the calendar year is over on December 31.
So from what you have said, you are actually not that far away from earning your full 40 credits. However, what you may want to concentrate on is earning more than 40 credits by the time you are old enough to get Social Security to minimize you WEP reduction.