Social Security at FRA while receiving delayed teacher paychecks - will late SS contributions affect my benefits?

Yes, those contributions will still count! Social Security recalculates your benefit amount annually, looking at any new earnings that might increase your benefit. So those summer paychecks will be part of your 2025 earnings record, and SSA will automatically review your record and adjust your benefit if those earnings improve your calculation. This happens automatically - you don't need to contact them about it. If those earnings do increase your benefit amount, you'll get a notice about the adjustment, and any increase would be retroactive to January of the year after you earned the wages (so January 2026 in your case).

Im a teacher in Arkansas and went through this exact thing last year!!!! The Social Securty office DID count my summer paychecks but here's what happened - they didn't ajust my payment until almost October 2024 even though I retired May 2023. It was automatic but took FOREVER. And the retro payment came seperate from my regular ss payment. Also watch out for the WEP thing its a NIGHTMARE and they reduced my ss by way more than they initially told me!!

There's some misinformation here that needs to be cleared up. The SSA does an automatic earnings recomputation annually, but it's not as simple as just counting those extra contributions. Your benefit amount is based on your highest 35 years of earnings (adjusted for inflation). Those final paychecks will only increase your benefit if they're part of a year that replaces one of your lower 35 years in your calculation. Also, given that this is a partial year (2025), they may not have enough weight to push out a lower year. And regarding WEP - be very careful here. The Windfall Elimination Provision will reduce your SS benefit because of your teacher pension (if your teaching job didn't pay into Social Security). The reduction can be substantial - up to $512 per month in 2023, and likely higher by 2025.

Quick question - did your school district have you fill out the SSA-150 form? That's the "Statement of Employer" for WEP/GPO purposes, and many districts are supposed to complete this when you retire, but some don't know about it. It helps SSA properly calculate both the WEP reduction and when your pension payments officially begin, which could affect your SS payment timing.

I spent TWO HOURS on hold with SSA last week trying to ask a question just like this!!! Then got disconnected right when someone finally answered. Their phone system is BROKEN and their offices are still appointment only in my area. So frustrating!!!!

Anyone here know if the same rules apply to FERS employees? Federal retirement system is different from teachers but I'll be in a similar situation where I'll have some final paychecks coming after my retirement date next year.

Thank you all for the helpful information! I'm going to make an appointment with my local SS office to discuss both my FRA benefits and how WEP will affect me specifically. I'll make sure to ask about the SSA-150 form too. It's such a relief to know the system will at least consider those final contributions, even if they might not end up increasing my benefit amount much. I'll come back and update once I've met with them and have more concrete information about my specific situation.

As someone who just went through this process last year, I can confirm that those final paychecks will definitely count toward your Social Security record! The key thing to understand is that SSA does an automatic recomputation each year, typically processing these adjustments between October and December of the following year. Since you mentioned you have over 40 years of SS-covered work, those final 2025 earnings could potentially replace one of your lower-earning years from the 1980s or early 1990s, which would increase your benefit. Even though it's a partial year, if the indexed earnings are higher than your lowest year in the calculation, you'll see an increase. One tip: keep copies of all those final paystubs showing the SS taxes withheld. While the process is automatic, having documentation can be helpful if there are any discrepancies. And definitely follow up on that SSA-150 form - many school districts don't proactively provide it, but it's important for proper WEP calculations.

I'm in a very similar situation as a newcomer to this community! I'm planning to retire from teaching in Texas next year and will hit my FRA in June, but I'll also have some delayed summer paychecks coming after I start collecting SS benefits. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea about the automatic recomputation process or the SSA-150 form that @ThunderBolt7 mentioned. The timing information from @Katherine Shultz about adjustments happening between October-December is particularly useful for planning purposes. I'm also facing the WEP reduction since Texas teachers don't pay into SS for their teaching work, though I have about 25 years of private sector work where I did pay in. One question I have after reading all this - has anyone here dealt with the interaction between state teacher retirement system timing and SS benefit start dates? I'm wondering if there are any coordination issues I should be aware of when both systems are processing retirement benefits simultaneously.