Will SS Fairness Act help me qualify with 33 quarters + 10 years of uncovered teaching service?

I just went through this exact mess trying to figure out my benefits after teaching for 22 years! The Social Security Fairness Act doesn't actually give you credit for those non-covered teaching years toward your 40 quarters. What it does is eliminate (or reduce) the WEP and GPO penalties that reduce benefits for people who worked in non-covered positions. If you have 33 quarters, you need 7 more to qualify for benefits on your own record (40 quarters total). Medicare credits don't count toward SS eligibility unfortunately. As for your husband, under current rules, any spousal benefits he might receive would be reduced or eliminated by his government pension (that's the Government Pension Offset). But if the Fairness Act passes in its current form, that reduction would go away and he could receive full spousal benefits based on your record - as long as you qualify for your own benefits first. I was so frustrated trying to reach someone at SSA to explain this that I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a real person. Their video demo (https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU) shows how it works - basically got me past the endless hold times. The agent I spoke with cleared everything up for me.

The Social Security Fairness Act has been proposed multiple times but hasn't been passed yet. The versions currently in Congress would eliminate both the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO), but it won't give you credit for quarters where you didn't pay into Social Security. Your calculation about the 35 years is correct though - Social Security uses your highest 35 years of earnings to calculate your benefit. If you have fewer than 35 years of covered earnings, they use zeros for the missing years, which lowers your benefit amount. Regarding your husband: If the Fairness Act passes, he would potentially be eligible for spousal benefits (up to 50% of your full retirement age benefit) without reduction from GPO. Currently, his government pension would reduce or eliminate any spousal benefits. Just to clarify one point - you need 40 quarters (10 years) where you PAID INTO Social Security to qualify for retirement benefits. Medicare credits alone don't count toward SS eligibility.

My husband had the exact same situation! He taught for years in Texas (no SS contributions) then worked part time after retiring. He had to keep working until he got all 40 quarters. The Medicare quarters don't count for SS eligibility, sorry to say.

The rules on this stuff are SO confusing!! I thought if you had any SS credits at all you could get something. Why does the government make this so complicated???

I HATE the WEP and GPO!!!! I worked as a teacher for 25 years and also worked enough to qualify for Social Security but my SS benefit got slashed by almost 60% because of WEP. It's HIGHWAY ROBBERY that they can take away benefits I EARNED!!!! And my husband passed away last year and I should be getting his survivor benefits but the GPO reduced them to ZERO because of my teacher pension. How is that fair???? I've been calling my representatives EVERY WEEK demanding they pass the Fairness Act. Everyone affected should be doing the same!!

why dont u just get a part time job for like a year or so? thats what my aunt did, she worked at walmart like 2 days a week for a year and got her quarters. way easier than waiting for congress to do something lol

Just wanted to add something important about your husband's situation - even without the Fairness Act passing, if he has 30 quarters of covered employment, he might not be fully subject to the WEP reduction on his own record. There's a WEP guarantee that if you have 30+ years of substantial earnings under Social Security, the WEP doesn't apply. For fewer years, there's a partial exemption starting at 21 years. However, the GPO (affecting spousal/survivor benefits) doesn't have a similar exemption based on years of work, which is why the Fairness Act is so important for people like your husband who might be looking at spousal benefits.