I’m not clear, even though I’ve done a bit of searching.
I’ve been with a private employer for some time and have been paying into social security. If I become a WI state employee (specifically with the University) and work there until I’m 65 (about 15 years) will I still be able to get social security benefits?
This is a rather mundane specific question, but I thought I would start here first (well second…after an initial search)
I’ve been told no, by someone not well versed in the field…so I don’t believe it; yet.
I don’t believe it either, as a matter of simple “work for state, no SS for you!” policy. The most I would believe would be that the state may offer its own pension in lieu of SS, and thus you would not get SS from your years for the state, but would get SS from your years in the private sector, but your SS may be reduced if your state pension is too high.
Then again, I do not know for certain if any of these "if"s are the case or not.
It depends on the state. I spent four years at Univ. Ill. and, as a result, do not qualify for medicare if I were to move to the US. Not only that but of the money put into the pension scheme, I got back only my contribution without interest. And they had charged the federal government for some of the “state contribution” and confiscated that too. I was really shortchanged by them. What Wisconsin does, I don’t know; you will have to ask them.
My husband worked at UW for a while, then Purdue, and at both schools he paid into social security. Then we moved to Illinois and he worked here for 25 years, and didn’t pay. The time at Wisconsin and Purdue helped him collect a retirement check from social security, so yes, you can collect.
I stayed home with our daughter and started work as a public school teacher in Illinois, so no social security for me. The couple of years I worked before I was married are washed out by 20 years of teaching.
Most government agencies use their own pension systems in place of SS, so employees are not earning credits while employed there. But the 40 credits (which is 40 quarters - just 10 years of wages over 4,400/yr) can be earned in other jobs, including jobs held before or after the government service. The government service earnings do not factor into the SS benefit calculations, so these people usually get a pretty small amount from SS… but it is in addition to whatever retirement benefits the government entity provides.
I went through this with my wife. The general rule is, if you worked for an organization that did not pay into SS, and you qualify for a pension with them, your SS benefits are reduced.
15 years might not be long enough to qualify for a pension, even if public employees in Wisconsin don’t pay into SS.
That’s true, but as kunilou said, there’s even more to it than that. Even if you qualify under the 40 credits rule, your SS benefits can be reduced in some circumstances if you also get a pension from a governmental organization and you didn’t pay SS tax while you were working for that organization. The basic idea is to prevent “double dipping” but the formula is complicated and in some cases you can end up getting much less in total than if you had just recieved the SS alone.
Check the Windfall Elimination Provision on the IRS site. It explains what happens when you work and don’t pay into social security. My husband was 75 when he retired, and had been working since he got out of college, so his 25 years in Illinois public education didn’t totally eliminate his social security benefit.