Social Security WEP reduction with military, private and county employment - will HR 82 help me?

The HR 82 bill (Social Security Fairness Act) would eliminate both WEP and GPO if passed, regardless of your specific work history mix. It's been introduced multiple times but hasn't passed yet. Your military service alone doesn't trigger WEP - it's the county pension from non-covered employment that causes the WEP reduction. With 28 years of substantial SS earnings, your WEP reduction is already being partially mitigated (30+ years would eliminate it completely under current rules). Military service with FICA taxes paid counts as covered employment toward your 28 years.

Thanks for clarifying! So my military years DO count toward my SS-covered employment years as long as I paid FICA taxes during that time (which I did)? And if HR 82 passed, I'd get my full SS benefit without any WEP reduction regardless of my county pension? That would be about $450 more per month for me!

omg the WEP is SO UNFAIR!! i worked 22 yrs private then 15 at state govt and my SS got cut by like 40%!! they're basically stealing money we EARNED!! hope that bill passes but they've been promising to fix this for years and nothing ever happens 😡

Exactly! My mom worked as a teacher for 25 years after working retail for 15 years and her SS benefit is tiny because of WEP. It's like they're punishing people for having multiple careers. When I called SSA to ask about it they just gave me the runaround about \

Just to add some clarity on the military service part of your question - your military service time does count toward your Social Security-covered employment as long as you paid Social Security taxes during that service (which most military members do). The years that actually trigger WEP are only your non-covered county employment years where you didn't pay into Social Security. The current WEP rule has a provision that reduces the penalty based on how many years of \

This is a really important point about the military service. My husband was Navy for 6 years then private sector for 25 years and is now working for the state. We were worried about his SS being affected but didn't realize the military time counts toward the

I went through this EXACT same situation! Military (Navy), private sector, then county job. What you need to do is create an account on ssa.gov and download your earnings record. It will show each year and how much SS tax you paid. For 2025, \

Thank you! I've been trying to reach someone at SSA for weeks with no luck. I'll check out that service - at this point I just need to talk to a real person who can look at my specific situation. I tried downloading my earnings record but some of my military years show weird codes I don't understand.

If I may add a bit more technical detail: The WEP formula reduces the percentage of your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) from 90% to as low as 40% in the first bend point of the calculation. For each year of substantial earnings over 20 years, the percentage increases by 5%. With your 28 years, you're at 80% instead of 90% in that first tier.Regarding HR 82, it has bipartisan support but faces budget obstacles since repealing WEP/GPO would cost approximately $150 billion over 10 years. Keep an eye on alternative compromise proposals like the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act which would provide relief without full repeal.

Wow, I didn't realize how the formula actually works. So I'm closer to the full amount than I thought! Do you know if there's a calculator where I can plug in my years of service to see exactly what I'd get if the WEP were repealed vs. under the current formula?

Quick question - does anyone know if the county pension amount affects how much the WEP reduces your Social Security? My situation is similar but my county pension is much smaller (only about $850/month) and I'm wondering if that means my WEP reduction might be less severe.

The WEP reduction is capped at half the amount of your non-covered pension. So if your monthly county pension is $850, your maximum WEP reduction would be $425 per month (even if the formula would otherwise reduce it more). This is known as the WEP guarantee provision and is often overlooked when calculating the impact.

This conversation is so helpful! My dad just retired with a similar situation (he worked federal government under CSRS, then private sector). The SSA office gave him different answers each time he called about his WEP reduction. It's frustrating that even their own employees don't seem to understand these complicated rules consistently.

its crazy how complicated they make everything! my brother tried to calculate his benefit and got totally different numbers than what SSA told him. makes you wonder if theyre just making stuff up sometimes lol

One thing to keep in mind about HR 82 - even if it doesn't pass in its current form, there are other compromise bills that might help your situation. The Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act would create a new formula that would give relief to many WEP-affected retirees, especially those with many years of substantial covered earnings like you have. Additionally, you might want to check if any of your county employment was actually covered employment. Some county positions do pay into Social Security alongside their pension system. This would increase your years of substantial earnings and potentially further reduce your WEP penalty.

That's interesting about the compromise bill. I'll look into that too. As for my county job, I'm pretty sure we didn't pay into SS because they specifically mentioned that when I was hired - they said it was a Section 218 issue or something like that. But I'll double-check my old pay stubs to make sure.