Why do some states don't allow you to pay into Social Security?

[biscuitmom]

Originally Posted by Ariadne22

We've had posters who were aware of WEP who have done this. I remember one who stated she intentionally left a non-SS job and then worked under SS for 30 years for this reason.

That might have been me. Actually I worked 21 years in a corporate job and paid into SS, then quit to become a public school teacher. After a couple of years I became aware of the WEP penalty, no thanks to school administration and coworkers who seemed blithely unaware of it - in fact some insisted I was wrong. I stayed in teaching several more years thinking surely a teacher pension would mean I would come out ahead or at least no worse.

It wouldn't. I finally woke up to the cold hard math, quit the school system, and became a librarian for a city that participated in SS.
That decision was a win-win-win: I stayed 12 years in that position, which put me over the 30 years needed to cancel out WEP, and I loved every minute of the job. I am now drawing my vested corporate pension + a small teacher pension + my full SS benefits.

[mlb]

I just think that public entities thought they would be enriching their pension programs - which were probably flailing - back in the 80's.... with the FICA money.

I recall hearing that my entity thought that THEY knew better how to invest the money than the Federal Government.

Hurt a lot of people by doing that.

[janja1]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

Keep in mind that if you don't pay into SS, then you can't take out SS disability.

My mother paid into SS for years, took a job with the state of FL for two years and had back problems but was disqualified from SS disability because she hadn't paid in for two years. What ba mess!

She most likely was given incorrect information about that. You need 20 credits in the last 10 years to qualify for disability. https://www.ssa.gov/planners/credits.html

If she had paid into SS for years - So as long as she was working enough to earn 4 credits per year, she should have had enough credits for disability until she did not work under SS for 5 years. (Working for 8 out of the past 10 years should have given her 32 credits, which is well above the 20 needed.)


It wouldn't surprise me that someone at SSA told her that she didn't qualify, but that would not have been correct.

[johngolf]

Look up WEP...Windfall Elimination Program